A&I Financial Services LLC Purchases New Holdings in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

A&I Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 51,539 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $729,000. TransAlta makes up about 0.7% of A&I Financial Services LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest position.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Rubric Capital Management LP boosted its position in shares of TransAlta by 20.0% during the 3rd quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 5,622,961 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $58,254,000 after acquiring an additional 935,803 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in TransAlta by 9.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,593,023 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $47,613,000 after purchasing an additional 408,184 shares in the last quarter. Yaupon Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in TransAlta by 69.9% during the third quarter. Yaupon Capital Management LP now owns 2,685,955 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,840,000 after purchasing an additional 1,105,191 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in shares of TransAlta by 37.8% in the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,286,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $13,343,000 after buying an additional 352,860 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Artemis Investment Management LLP bought a new position in shares of TransAlta during the 4th quarter worth approximately $7,139,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 59.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TAC has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Desjardins reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of TransAlta in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. CIBC upgraded shares of TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $23.00 to $19.50 in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Scotiabank downgraded shares of TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $19.50.

TransAlta Stock Performance

TransAlta stock opened at $10.16 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $12.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $11.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.79 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94. 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%. On average, research analysts anticipate that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Sunday, June 1st will be given a $0.0458 dividend. This represents a $0.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.80%. This is a positive change from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.02%.

TransAlta 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.