TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 12,800,000 shares, a decrease of 15.3% from the February 28th total of 15,120,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,920,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.7 days. Currently, 4.3% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On TransAlta

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in shares of TransAlta by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 27,627 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $391,000 after acquiring an additional 1,420 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of TransAlta by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 122,621 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,277,000 after purchasing an additional 2,524 shares in the last quarter. Tobam acquired a new stake in shares of TransAlta during the 4th quarter valued at about $46,000. Vident Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of TransAlta by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 69,004 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $976,000 after buying an additional 3,499 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its holdings in TransAlta by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 147,703 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,090,000 after buying an additional 4,641 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 59.00% of the company’s stock.

TransAlta Price Performance

TAC opened at $9.35 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.79 and a beta of 0.89. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $10.51 and a 200-day moving average of $11.20. 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 has a 12-month low of $5.94 and a 12-month high of $14.64.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $484.60 million during the quarter. TransAlta had a return on equity of 18.47% and a net margin of 6.38%. Equities analysts forecast that TransAlta will post 0.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Sunday, June 1st will be given a dividend of $0.0458 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th. This is an increase from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. This represents a $0.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.96%. TransAlta’s payout ratio is presently 43.90%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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