Insider Buying: TransAlta Co. (TSE:TA) Senior Officer Acquires 45,000 Shares of Stock

TransAlta Co. (TSE:TA) (NYSE:TAC) Senior Officer Joel E. Hunter acquired 45,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 27th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of C$14.99 per share, for a total transaction of C$674,752.50.

TransAlta Stock Performance

TA opened at C$14.98 on Friday. TransAlta Co. has a 1-year low of C$8.22 and a 1-year high of C$21.22. The business has a 50 day moving average price of C$17.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$15.37. The company has a market capitalization of C$4.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of -0.07 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 229.66, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Scotiabank cut TransAlta from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and increased their price target for the company from C$19.00 to C$21.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. CIBC upgraded TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and decreased their target price for the company from C$23.00 to C$19.50 in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. TD Securities lifted their price target on TransAlta from C$18.00 to C$19.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on TransAlta from C$14.00 to C$16.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Cibc World Mkts upgraded TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of C$18.36.

About TransAlta

TransAlta Corporation engages in the development, production, and sale of electric energy. It operates through Hydro, Wind and Solar, Gas, Energy Transition, and Energy Marketing segments. The Hydro segment holds interest of approximately 922 megawatts (MW) of owned hydroelectric generating capacity located in Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario.