19,090 Shares in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) Acquired by First Eagle Investment Management LLC

First Eagle Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 19,090 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $270,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in TAC. Tobam acquired a new position 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. Ballentine Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of TransAlta during the 4th quarter worth approximately $145,000. Private Advisor Group LLC bought a new position in shares of TransAlta during the fourth quarter worth approximately $150,000. Finally, Sage Investment Counsel LLC acquired a new stake in shares of TransAlta in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $156,000. Institutional investors own 59.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

TransAlta Stock Performance

NYSE:TAC opened at $9.54 on Monday. TransAlta Co. has a twelve month low of $5.94 and a twelve month high of $14.64. 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’s 50-day simple moving average is $11.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $11.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.84 billion, a PE ratio of 23.26 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 the consensus estimate of $0.12 by ($0.28). The company had revenue of $484.60 million for the quarter. TransAlta had a net margin of 6.38% and a return on equity of 18.47%. On average, analysts anticipate that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th. This is a boost from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.90%.

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.