TransAlta (TA) Competitors

Capital Power (TSE:CPX) and TransAlta (TSE:TA) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, media sentiment, earnings, institutional ownership, community ranking, risk, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Do analysts rate CPX or TA?

Capital Power presently has a consensus target price of C$45.91, indicating a potential upside of 30.02%. TransAlta has a consensus target price of C$15.55, indicating a potential upside of 71.63%. Given Capital Power's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe TransAlta is more favorable than Capital Power.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Capital Power	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.40
TransAlta	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Is CPX or TA a better dividend stock?

Capital Power pays an annual dividend of C$2.46 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.0%. TransAlta pays an annual dividend of C$0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Capital Power pays out 40.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. TransAlta pays out 10.3% 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.

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

19.6% of Capital Power shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.2% of TransAlta shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Capital Power shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of TransAlta shares are owned by company 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.

Is CPX or TA more profitable?

TransAlta has a net margin of 20.71% compared to TransAlta's net margin of 18.29%. Capital Power's return on equity of 43.58% beat TransAlta's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Capital Power	18.29%	26.11%	6.18%
TransAlta	20.71%	43.58%	6.92%

Does the media favor CPX or TA?

In the previous week, Capital Power had 5 more articles in the media than TransAlta. MarketBeat recorded 21 mentions for Capital Power and 16 mentions for TransAlta. TransAlta's average media sentiment score of 0.61 beat Capital Power's score of 0.50 indicating that Capital Power is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Capital Power	2 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
TransAlta	1 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has better valuation and earnings, CPX or TA?

Capital Power has higher revenue and earnings than TransAlta. TransAlta is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Capital Power, 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
Capital Power	C$4.07B	1.10	C$710M	C$6.04	5.85
TransAlta	C$3.36B	0.83	C$644M	C$2.33	3.89

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in CPX or TA?

Capital Power received 39 more outperform votes than TransAlta when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 53.30% of users gave Capital Power an outperform vote while only 53.21% of users gave TransAlta an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Capital Power	Outperform Votes 371 53.30%	Underperform Votes 325 46.70%
TransAlta	Outperform Votes 332 53.21%	Underperform Votes 292 46.79%

Which has more risk and volatility, CPX or TA?

Capital Power has a beta of 0.57, suggesting that its share price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TransAlta has a beta of 0.89, suggesting that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

TransAlta beats Capital Power on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.