Scotia Capital Inc. decreased its stake in shares of TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC - Free Report) TSE: TA by 31.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 581,325 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 267,211 shares during the quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. owned about 0.20% of TransAlta worth $8,192,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of TAC. Signaturefd LLC boosted its stake in TransAlta by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 27,627 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $391,000 after purchasing an additional 1,420 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of TransAlta by 2.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 122,621 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,277,000 after buying an additional 2,524 shares in the last quarter. Tobam purchased a new stake in shares of TransAlta during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in TransAlta by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 79,957 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,131,000 after acquiring an additional 5,593 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd raised its holdings in 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 last quarter. 59.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
TAC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on TransAlta in a research note on Friday. They issued a "hold" rating for the company. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of TransAlta from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Scotiabank lowered shares of TransAlta from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com cut shares of TransAlta from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, CIBC upgraded shares of TransAlta from a "neutral" rating to an "outperformer" rating and decreased their target price for the company from $23.00 to $19.50 in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, TransAlta currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $19.50.
Read Our Latest Report on TAC
TransAlta Price Performance
Shares of TAC stock traded down $0.28 on Tuesday, hitting $8.49. 1,902,992 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,146,189. TransAlta Co. has a 52 week low of $5.94 and a 52 week high of $14.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market cap of $2.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.70 and a beta of 0.72. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $11.10.
TransAlta (NYSE:TAC - Get Free Report) TSE: TA last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported ($0.16) EPS 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 during the quarter. As a group, equities research analysts predict that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
TransAlta Increases Dividend
The company also recently disclosed 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 represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.16%. This is a positive change from TransAlta's previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. TransAlta's payout ratio is presently 43.90%.
About TransAlta
(
Free Report)
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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