TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) Short Interest Down 33.9% in September

TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) saw a large decline in short interest during the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 4,180,000 shares, a decline of 33.9% from the September 15th total of 6,320,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 787,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.3 days. Approximately 1.4% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Institutional Trading of TransAlta

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. NBC Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in TransAlta by 156.3% in the first quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 4,100 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 2,500 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in TransAlta by 1,381.5% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,237 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 3,951 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. purchased a new stake in TransAlta during the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Mather Group LLC. bought a new stake in TransAlta during the 2nd quarter valued at about $64,000. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC purchased a new position in TransAlta in the first quarter worth about $66,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 59.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded TransAlta from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th.

TransAlta Trading Up 0.8 %

TAC stock traded up $0.08 on Friday, reaching $10.33. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 630,653 shares, compared to its average volume of 754,098. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.43, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.84. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $9.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $7.74. The firm has a market cap of $3.13 billion, a PE ratio of 6.66 and a beta of 0.92. TransAlta has a 12-month low of $5.94 and a 12-month high of $10.73.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.08. TransAlta had a return on equity of 47.71% and a net margin of 18.41%. The company had revenue of $425.37 million for the quarter. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.17 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that TransAlta will post 0.75 EPS for the current year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Sunday, September 1st were paid a dividend of $0.044 per share. This is an increase from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.97%.

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.