TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) Position Trimmed by Greenland Capital Management LP

Greenland Capital Management LP decreased its stake in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC - Free Report) TSE: TA by 52.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 56,990 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 63,010 shares during the period. Greenland Capital Management LP's holdings in TransAlta were worth $806,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Signaturefd LLC grew its stake in TransAlta by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 27,627 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $391,000 after buying an additional 1,420 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of TransAlta by 2.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 122,621 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,277,000 after purchasing an additional 2,524 shares during the period. Tobam purchased a new position in TransAlta in the 4th quarter valued at $46,000. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in TransAlta by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 79,957 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,131,000 after buying an additional 5,593 shares during the period. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd lifted its stake in shares of TransAlta by 27.4% in the 3rd quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 29,672 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $307,000 after acquiring an additional 6,385 shares during the period. 59.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of TransAlta in a research report on Friday. They set a "hold" rating on the stock. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of TransAlta from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. CIBC upgraded TransAlta from a "neutral" rating to an "outperformer" rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $23.00 to $19.50 in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Scotiabank downgraded TransAlta from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded TransAlta from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, TransAlta presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $19.50.

TransAlta Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of TAC traded up $0.11 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $8.80. The stock had a trading volume of 131,614 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,857,051. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.74. TransAlta Co. has a 12-month low of $5.94 and a 12-month high of $14.64. The firm has a market cap of $2.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.46 and a beta of 0.72. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $9.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $11.11.

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

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Sunday, June 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.0458 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This is an increase from TransAlta's previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.08%. TransAlta's payout ratio is currently 43.90%.

TransAlta Company Profile

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.