Legal & General Group Plc Cuts Stake in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its stake in shares of TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC - Free Report) TSE: TA by 11.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 252,905 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 31,717 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.08% of TransAlta worth $3,575,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in TAC. Tobam bought a new position in shares of TransAlta during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new position in TransAlta in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $145,000. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC bought a new position in TransAlta during the fourth quarter valued at $147,000. Private Advisor Group LLC purchased a new stake in TransAlta in the fourth quarter worth $150,000. Finally, Sage Investment Counsel LLC purchased a new position in shares of TransAlta during the 4th quarter valued at $156,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 59.00% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of TransAlta in a research note on Friday, April 11th. They issued a "hold" rating for the company. StockNews.com cut shares of TransAlta from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Cibc World Mkts raised TransAlta from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Scotiabank lowered TransAlta from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, CIBC raised TransAlta from a "neutral" rating to an "outperformer" rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $23.00 to $19.50 in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $19.50.

TransAlta Trading Up 1.5 %

TransAlta stock opened at $8.56 on Wednesday. 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 fifty-two week low of $6.46 and a fifty-two week high of $14.64. The stock has a market cap of $2.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.88 and a beta of 0.72. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $9.48 and its 200-day moving average price is $11.02.

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 analysts' consensus estimates of $0.12 by ($0.28). The business had revenue of $484.60 million during the quarter. TransAlta had a return on equity of 18.47% and a net margin of 6.38%. Equities research analysts forecast that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Stockholders 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 represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.14%. This is a boost from TransAlta's previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. TransAlta's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.90%.

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.

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