TransAlta (TA) Competitors

Emera (TSE:EMA) and TransAlta (TSE:TA) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, risk, media sentiment, community ranking, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and profitability.

Is EMA or TA more profitable?

TransAlta has a net margin of 19.50% compared to Emera's net margin of 10.83%. TransAlta's return on equity of 32.01% beat Emera's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Emera	10.83%	6.60%	2.30%
TransAlta	19.50%	32.01%	7.07%

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer EMA or TA?

Emera received 251 more outperform votes than TransAlta when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 58.49% of users gave Emera an outperform vote while only 53.31% of users gave TransAlta an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Emera	Outperform Votes 589 58.49%	Underperform Votes 418 41.51%
TransAlta	Outperform Votes 338 53.31%	Underperform Votes 296 46.69%

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of EMA or TA?

28.1% of Emera shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.8% of TransAlta shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Emera shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of TransAlta shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is EMA or TA a better dividend stock?

Emera pays an annual dividend of C$2.90 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.4%. TransAlta pays an annual dividend of C$0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Emera pays out 112.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. TransAlta pays out 12.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Which has more volatility & risk, EMA or TA?

Emera has a beta of 0.35, indicating that its stock price is 65% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TransAlta has a beta of 0.93, indicating that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts rate EMA or TA?

Emera currently has a consensus target price of C$53.10, suggesting a potential downside of 1.88%. TransAlta has a consensus target price of C$16.17, suggesting a potential downside of 1.12%. Given TransAlta's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe TransAlta is more favorable than Emera.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Emera	1 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.60
TransAlta	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.83

Which has better earnings & valuation, EMA or TA?

Emera has higher revenue and earnings than TransAlta. TransAlta is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Emera, 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
Emera	C$7.35B	2.12	C$725.70M	C$2.57	21.06
TransAlta	C$3.17B	1.54	C$566M	C$1.90	8.61

Does the media prefer EMA or TA?

In the previous week, TransAlta had 2 more articles in the media than Emera. MarketBeat recorded 3 mentions for TransAlta and 1 mentions for Emera. Emera's average media sentiment score of 0.80 beat TransAlta's score of -0.13 indicating that Emera is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Emera	Positive
TransAlta	Neutral

Summary

Emera and TransAlta tied by winning 10 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.