Corient Private Wealth LLC Makes New $209,000 Investment in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

Corient Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 14,747 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $209,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. First Eagle Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of TransAlta during the fourth quarter valued at $270,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its position in TransAlta by 638.9% during the 4th quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 7,995,489 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $112,936,000 after acquiring an additional 6,913,431 shares during the period. Wealth High Governance Capital Ltda purchased a new stake in TransAlta during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,756,000. PCJ Investment Counsel Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of TransAlta by 18.6% in the fourth quarter. PCJ Investment Counsel Ltd. now owns 294,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,160,000 after purchasing an additional 46,250 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of TransAlta in the fourth quarter valued at about $822,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 59.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Scotiabank downgraded TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com cut shares of TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a 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 report on Tuesday, February 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $19.50.

TransAlta Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE:TAC opened at $9.46 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.67 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. The business has a 50 day moving average of $10.41 and a two-hundred day moving average of $11.20. The company has a market capitalization of $2.82 billion, a PE ratio of 23.06 and a beta of 0.89.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last posted its 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 firm had revenue of $484.60 million during the quarter. TransAlta had a net margin of 6.38% and a return on equity of 18.47%. As a group, analysts forecast that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 EPS for the current year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Stockholders 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 a boost from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. This represents a $0.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.94%. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.