Profit rebound for TransAlta

Article Excerpt

TRANSALTA CORP. $21.36 (Toronto symbol TA; Shares outstanding: 219.5 million; Market cap: $4.7 billion; SI Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 5.4%) reported 0.5% lower revenue in the three months ended June 30, 2010, to $582 million from $585 million a year earlier. Lower electricity prices offset the extra power from its 2009 acquisition of Canadian Hydro Developers. The company earned $0.23 a share. If you exclude a one-time tax gain, it earned $0.10 a share. Still, that’s a big improvement over the $0.03 a share it lost a year earlier. TransAlta’s shares trade at 19.4 times its likely 2010 earnings of $1.10 a share. That’s a higher p/e ratio than some other power utilities, but it’s still reasonable in light of the company’s improving earnings. TransAlta is a buy. buy…