Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. Has $606,000 Stake in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. lowered its holdings in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) by 12.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 42,945 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 6,369 shares during the quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.’s holdings in TransAlta were worth $606,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Tobam acquired a new stake in TransAlta in the 4th quarter valued at $46,000. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in TransAlta in the 3rd quarter valued at $61,000. Ballentine Partners LLC acquired a new stake in TransAlta in the 4th quarter valued at $145,000. Private Advisor Group LLC acquired a new stake in TransAlta in the 4th quarter valued at $150,000. Finally, Sage Investment Counsel LLC acquired a new stake in TransAlta in the 4th quarter valued at $156,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 59.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on TAC shares. 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 cut TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Scotiabank cut TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, CIBC upgraded TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $23.00 to $19.50 in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, TransAlta presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $19.50.

TransAlta Trading Down 0.2 %

NYSE TAC opened at $9.76 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.80 and a beta of 0.89. TransAlta Co. has a one year low of $5.94 and a one year 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 business’s fifty day moving average is $10.99 and its 200-day moving average is $11.15.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported ($0.16) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by ($0.28). The business 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%. Equities research analysts predict that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 EPS for the current year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. This represents a $0.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.88%. This is a boost 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%.

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.