TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) Shares Sold by TD Waterhouse Canada Inc.

TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. lowered its position in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC - Free Report) TSE: TA by 48.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 461,550 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 439,237 shares during the period. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. owned approximately 0.16% of TransAlta worth $6,498,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of TAC. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in TransAlta by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,229,823 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $144,680,000 after purchasing an additional 150,554 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can grew its stake in TransAlta by 8.4% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 9,290,110 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $131,222,000 after acquiring an additional 716,139 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in TransAlta by 79.7% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,255,923 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $116,764,000 after acquiring an additional 3,662,900 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its position 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 acquiring an additional 6,913,431 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of TransAlta by 512.0% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,870,226 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $68,880,000 after purchasing an additional 4,074,395 shares in the last quarter. 59.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

TransAlta Stock Performance

TransAlta stock opened at $8.56 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $9.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $11.02. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94. TransAlta Co. has a 52 week low of $6.46 and a 52 week high of $14.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.88 and a beta of 0.72.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC - Get Free Report) TSE: TA last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 18.47% and a net margin of 6.38%. The company had revenue of $484.60 million for the quarter. Equities research analysts anticipate that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current 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 paid a dividend of $0.0458 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This is a boost from TransAlta's previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.14%. TransAlta's payout ratio is currently 43.90%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

TransAlta 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.

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