TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) Short Interest Update

TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC - Get Free Report) TSE: TA was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 15,120,000 shares, a growth of 50.6% from the February 13th total of 10,040,000 shares. Currently, 5.1% of the company's stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 1,930,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 7.8 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in TransAlta by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,229,823 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $144,680,000 after purchasing an additional 150,554 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its stake in TransAlta by 8.4% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 9,290,110 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $131,222,000 after purchasing an additional 716,139 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its stake in TransAlta by 79.7% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,255,923 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $116,764,000 after purchasing an additional 3,662,900 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its stake in TransAlta by 638.9% during the fourth quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 7,995,489 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $112,936,000 after purchasing an additional 6,913,431 shares during the period. Finally, Rubric Capital Management LP increased its holdings in shares of TransAlta by 20.0% during the third quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 5,622,961 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $58,254,000 after buying an additional 935,803 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 59.00% of the company's stock.

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TransAlta Stock Performance

TAC stock traded down $0.06 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $9.64. 307,303 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,126,750. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94. The business has a 50-day moving average of $11.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $11.15. TransAlta has a 52 week low of $5.94 and a 52 week high of $14.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.87 billion, a PE ratio of 23.50 and a beta of 0.89.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC - Get Free Report) TSE: TA last released 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). 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, equities analysts predict that TransAlta will post 0.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Sunday, June 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.0458 per share. This is a boost from TransAlta's previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $0.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.90%. TransAlta's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.90%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TAC has been the topic of a number of research reports. Scotiabank downgraded shares of TransAlta from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of TransAlta from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of TransAlta from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, CIBC raised shares of TransAlta from a "neutral" rating to an "outperformer" rating and lowered their target price for the stock 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, TransAlta has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $19.50.

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.