Artisan Partners Limited Partnership Acquires Shares of 4,746,051 TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership bought a new position in shares of TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 4,746,051 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $67,038,000. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership owned 1.59% of TransAlta as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Tobam purchased a new position in shares of TransAlta during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in TransAlta in the third quarter worth about $61,000. Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new position in TransAlta in the fourth quarter valued at about $145,000. Private Advisor Group LLC bought a new position in shares of TransAlta during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $150,000. Finally, Sage Investment Counsel LLC purchased a new stake in shares of TransAlta during the 4th quarter worth approximately $156,000. Institutional investors own 59.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TAC has been the subject of several research reports. Cibc World Mkts raised TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Scotiabank cut TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, CIBC raised shares of TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $23.00 to $19.50 in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $19.50.

TransAlta Stock Performance

NYSE:TAC opened at $9.41 on Friday. TransAlta Co. has a 52-week low of $5.94 and a 52-week high of $14.64. The business’s fifty day moving average is $10.70 and its 200 day moving average is $11.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market cap of $2.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.94 and a beta of 0.89.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported ($0.16) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by ($0.28). TransAlta had a return on equity of 18.47% and a net margin of 6.38%. The firm had revenue of $484.60 million during the quarter. Research analysts predict that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 EPS for the current year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Sunday, June 1st will be issued a $0.0458 dividend. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.95%. This is an increase from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.90%.

About TransAlta

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.