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TransAlta (TAC) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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TransAlta (TAC - Free Report) closed at $10.17 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.4% move from the prior day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.03%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.01%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.37%.

Coming into today, shares of the power generation and marketing company had gained 4.15% in the past month. In that same time, the Utilities sector lost 0.41%, while the S&P 500 gained 3.43%.

TransAlta will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be August 4, 2023. The company is expected to report EPS of -$0.08, up 66.67% from the prior-year quarter.

TAC's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $1.03 per share and revenue of $2.42 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +1387.5% and +5.93%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for TransAlta. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 3.34% higher. TransAlta currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that TransAlta has a Forward P/E ratio of 9.74 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 17.01, so we one might conclude that TransAlta is trading at a discount comparatively.

The Utility - Electric Power industry is part of the Utilities sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 93, which puts it in the top 37% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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