Vanguard Group Inc. Has $144.68 Million Holdings in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 10,229,823 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 150,554 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc.’s holdings in TransAlta were worth $144,680,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of TransAlta during the third quarter valued at about $646,000. Wolverine Trading LLC bought a new stake in TransAlta during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $201,000. Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new position in TransAlta in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $998,000. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd grew its stake in shares of TransAlta by 27.4% in the third quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 29,672 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $307,000 after purchasing an additional 6,385 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new stake in TransAlta in the third quarter valued at $1,812,000. Institutional investors own 59.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

TransAlta Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of TAC stock opened at $8.33 on Tuesday. TransAlta Co. has a fifty-two week low of $5.94 and a fifty-two week high of $14.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.74. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $10.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $11.19. The company has a market cap of $2.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.31 and a beta of 0.72.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last released 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 net margin of 6.38% and a return on equity of 18.47%. Research analysts forecast that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Investors 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 2.20%. 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 payout ratio is presently 43.90%.

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.