Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership Reduces Stock Position in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership decreased its position in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC - Free Report) TSE: TA by 25.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,398,079 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 1,175,956 shares during the quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership owned about 1.14% of TransAlta worth $47,998,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tobam purchased a new stake in shares of TransAlta in the fourth quarter valued at $46,000. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in TransAlta in the 3rd quarter worth about $61,000. Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new stake in TransAlta in the 4th quarter valued at about $145,000. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of TransAlta during the 4th quarter valued at about $147,000. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of TransAlta during the 4th quarter worth about $150,000. 59.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

TransAlta Trading Down 3.9 %

TAC traded down $0.38 during trading on Thursday, hitting $9.20. 1,127,851 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,131,061. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $10.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $11.19. TransAlta Co. has a 1 year low of $5.94 and a 1 year high of $14.64. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94. The firm has a market cap of $2.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.43 and a beta of 0.89.

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TransAlta (NYSE:TAC - Get Free Report) TSE: TA last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported ($0.16) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.12 by ($0.28). The company had revenue of $484.60 million during the quarter. TransAlta had a net margin of 6.38% and a return on equity of 18.47%. As a group, analysts expect that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Sunday, June 1st will be given a dividend of $0.0458 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This is a positive change from TransAlta's previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.99%. TransAlta's payout ratio is 43.90%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on TAC. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of TransAlta from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com cut shares of TransAlta from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Scotiabank cut TransAlta from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, CIBC raised TransAlta from a "neutral" rating to an "outperformer" rating and lowered their price target for the company from $23.00 to $19.50 in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $19.50.

About TransAlta

TransAlta Corporation engages in the development, production, and sale of electric energy. It operates through Hydro, Wind and Solar, Gas, Energy Transition, and Energy Marketing segments. The Hydro segment holds interest of approximately 922 megawatts (MW) of owned hydroelectric generating capacity located in Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario.