TransAlta (TAC) Competitors

Brookfield Renewable Partners (NYSE:BEP) and TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, media sentiment, profitability, community ranking, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings and risk.

Do analysts recommend BEP or TAC?

Brookfield Renewable Partners presently has a consensus target price of $31.08, suggesting a potential upside of 11.53%. Given TransAlta's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Brookfield Renewable Partners is more favorable than TransAlta.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Brookfield Renewable Partners	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.82
TransAlta	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Does the media refer more to BEP or TAC?

In the previous week, Brookfield Renewable Partners had 13 more articles in the media than TransAlta. MarketBeat recorded 18 mentions for Brookfield Renewable Partners and 5 mentions for TransAlta. TransAlta's average media sentiment score of 0.81 beat Brookfield Renewable Partners' score of 0.70 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	9 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
TransAlta	1 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, BEP or TAC?

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	$5.04B	1.58	-$21M	-$0.46	-60.59
TransAlta	$3.21B	0.68	$514.86M	$1.55	4.65

Is BEP or TAC more profitable?

TransAlta has a net margin of 18.70% compared to TransAlta's net margin of 7.10%. Brookfield Renewable Partners' return on equity of 45.47% beat TransAlta's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Brookfield Renewable Partners	7.10%	1.30%	0.52%
TransAlta	18.70%	45.47%	5.94%

Which has more risk and volatility, BEP or TAC?

Brookfield Renewable Partners has a beta of 0.82, suggesting that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TransAlta has a beta of 0.83, suggesting that its share price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of BEP or TAC?

63.2% of Brookfield Renewable Partners shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 59.0% of TransAlta shares are owned by institutional investors. 13.1% of TransAlta shares are owned 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.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer BEP or TAC?

Brookfield Renewable Partners received 180 more outperform votes than TransAlta when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.83% of users gave Brookfield Renewable Partners an outperform vote while only 54.90% of users gave TransAlta an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Brookfield Renewable Partners	Outperform Votes 460 61.83%	Underperform Votes 284 38.17%
TransAlta	Outperform Votes 280 54.90%	Underperform Votes 230 45.10%

Is BEP or TAC a better dividend stock?

Brookfield Renewable Partners pays an annual dividend of $1.42 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.1%. TransAlta pays an annual dividend of $0.17 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Brookfield Renewable Partners pays out -308.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. TransAlta pays out 11.0% 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 has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years and TransAlta has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Brookfield Renewable Partners is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Brookfield Renewable Partners beats TransAlta on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.