TransAlta (TA) Competitors

Brookfield Renewable Partners (TSE:BEP.UN) and TransAlta (TSE:TA) are both utilities companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, community ranking, valuation, profitability, risk, earnings, dividends and media sentiment.

Which has more volatility & risk, BEP.UN or TA?

Brookfield Renewable Partners has a beta of 0.81, suggesting that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TransAlta has a beta of 0.87, suggesting that its stock price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of BEP.UN or TA?

67.4% of Brookfield Renewable Partners shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 67.3% of TransAlta shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of TransAlta shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts rate BEP.UN or TA?

Brookfield Renewable Partners presently has a consensus price target of C$38.00, indicating a potential upside of 0.45%. TransAlta has a consensus price target of C$15.22, indicating a potential upside of 56.93%. Given Brookfield Renewable Partners' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe TransAlta is more favorable than Brookfield Renewable Partners.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Brookfield Renewable Partners	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
TransAlta	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Is BEP.UN or TA a better dividend stock?

Brookfield Renewable Partners pays an annual dividend of C$1.94 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.1%. TransAlta pays an annual dividend of C$0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Brookfield Renewable Partners pays out -307.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. TransAlta pays out 12.3% 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. Brookfield Renewable Partners is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in BEP.UN or TA?

TransAlta received 34 more outperform votes than Brookfield Renewable Partners when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 60.94% of users gave Brookfield Renewable Partners an outperform vote while only 53.21% of users gave TransAlta an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Brookfield Renewable Partners	Outperform Votes 298 60.94%	Underperform Votes 191 39.06%
TransAlta	Outperform Votes 332 53.21%	Underperform Votes 292 46.79%

Does the media prefer BEP.UN or TA?

In the previous week, Brookfield Renewable Partners had 3 more articles in the media than TransAlta. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for Brookfield Renewable Partners and 2 mentions for TransAlta. TransAlta's average media sentiment score of 0.65 beat Brookfield Renewable Partners' score of -0.06 indicating that Brookfield Renewable Partners is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Brookfield Renewable Partners	1 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
TransAlta	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Is BEP.UN or TA more profitable?

TransAlta has a net margin of 19.39% compared to TransAlta's net margin of -2.25%. Brookfield Renewable Partners' return on equity of 33.61% beat TransAlta's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Brookfield Renewable Partners	-2.25%	1.31%	0.82%
TransAlta	19.39%	33.61%	6.50%

Which has higher earnings and valuation, BEP.UN or TA?

TransAlta has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Brookfield Renewable Partners. Brookfield Renewable Partners 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
Brookfield Renewable Partners	C$5.20B	2.08	-C$117M	-C$0.63	-60.05
TransAlta	C$3.21B	0.92	C$572M	C$1.95	4.97

Summary

TransAlta beats Brookfield Renewable Partners on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.