TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 10,040,000 shares, a growth of 20.2% from the January 31st total of 8,350,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,760,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.7 days. Currently, 3.4% of the company’s stock are sold short.

TransAlta Stock Performance

TransAlta stock traded down $0.02 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $9.36. 682,357 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,115,597. TransAlta has a fifty-two week low of $5.94 and a fifty-two week high of $14.64. The stock has a market cap of $2.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.75 and a beta of 0.83. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $11.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last announced 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). The company had revenue of $484.60 million for the quarter. TransAlta had a return on equity of 18.47% and a net margin of 6.38%. On average, research analysts expect that TransAlta will post 0.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Sunday, June 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.0458 per share. This is a boost from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.02%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tobam bought a new stake in shares of TransAlta in the fourth quarter valued at about $46,000. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in TransAlta in the 3rd quarter valued at about $61,000. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new stake in TransAlta in the 3rd quarter valued at about $130,000. Ballentine Partners LLC bought a new stake in TransAlta in the 4th quarter valued at about $145,000. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC bought a new stake in TransAlta in the 4th quarter valued at about $147,000. 59.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TAC has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Scotiabank cut TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Cibc World Mkts upgraded TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. CIBC upgraded 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 research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, StockNews.com cut TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, TransAlta presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.