Private Advisor Group LLC Makes New Investment in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

Private Advisor Group LLC bought a new stake in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 10,625 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $150,000.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Tobam acquired a new position in shares of TransAlta in the 4th quarter valued at about $46,000. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new position in shares of TransAlta in the 3rd quarter valued at about $61,000. Ballentine Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of TransAlta in the 4th quarter valued at about $145,000. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new position in shares of TransAlta in the 3rd quarter valued at about $130,000. Finally, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acquired a new position in shares of TransAlta in the 3rd quarter valued at about $194,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 59.00% of the company’s stock.

TransAlta Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of TransAlta stock opened at $9.32 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.72 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $11.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $11.09. TransAlta Co. has a 12-month low of $5.94 and a 12-month high of $14.64.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last announced its 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). 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%. Equities analysts expect that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Sunday, June 1st will be given a $0.0458 dividend. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.97%. This is a boost from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.90%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on TAC shares. Cibc World Mkts upgraded TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report 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 report on Tuesday, February 18th. Scotiabank downgraded TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.