Aura Minerals (ORA) Competitors

Aura Minerals (TSE:ORA) and TransAlta (TSE:TA) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, institutional ownership, media sentiment, profitability and dividends.

Is ORA or TA a better dividend stock?

Aura Minerals pays an annual dividend of C$0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. TransAlta pays an annual dividend of C$0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Aura Minerals pays out -92.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. TransAlta pays out 34.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Aura Minerals is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Is ORA or TA more profitable?

TransAlta has a net margin of 7.49% compared to Aura Minerals' net margin of -9.66%. TransAlta's return on equity of 12.03% beat Aura Minerals' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Aura Minerals	-9.66%	-19.25%	8.95%
TransAlta	7.49%	12.03%	7.07%

Do analysts prefer ORA or TA?

TransAlta has a consensus price target of C$19.22, suggesting a potential upside of 15.59%. Given TransAlta's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe TransAlta is more favorable than Aura Minerals.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Aura Minerals	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00
TransAlta	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.11

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, ORA or TA?

TransAlta has higher revenue and earnings than Aura Minerals. Aura Minerals is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than TransAlta, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Aura Minerals	C$391.49M	4.77	-C$37.81M	-C$1.03	-34.85
TransAlta	C$2.83B	1.76	C$212.05M	C$0.70	23.70

Does the media refer more to ORA or TA?

In the previous week, TransAlta had 24 more articles in the media than Aura Minerals. MarketBeat recorded 29 mentions for TransAlta and 5 mentions for Aura Minerals. TransAlta's average media sentiment score of 0.51 beat Aura Minerals' score of -0.02 indicating that TransAlta is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Aura Minerals	0 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
TransAlta	8 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of ORA or TA?

4.2% of Aura Minerals shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.8% of TransAlta shares are held by institutional investors. 58.0% of Aura Minerals shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of TransAlta shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility and risk, ORA or TA?

Aura Minerals has a beta of 0.59, suggesting that its share price is 41% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TransAlta has a beta of 0.93, suggesting that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

TransAlta beats Aura Minerals on 14 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.