Short Interest in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) Grows By 50.6%

TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) was the target of a large increase in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 15,120,000 shares, an increase of 50.6% from the February 13th total of 10,040,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,930,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 7.8 days. Currently, 5.1% of the company’s stock are short sold.

TransAlta Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of TAC traded up $0.13 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $9.54. The company had a trading volume of 1,555,939 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,162,290. The company has a market capitalization of $2.84 billion, a PE ratio of 23.26 and a beta of 0.89. 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 has a one year low of $5.94 and a one year high of $14.64. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $11.36 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $11.13.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported ($0.16) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.12 by ($0.28). TransAlta had a return on equity of 18.47% and a net margin of 6.38%. The company had revenue of $484.60 million during the quarter. As a group, equities analysts forecast that TransAlta will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The firm 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 dividend of $0.0458 per share. This is a positive change from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.90%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TAC. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new position in TransAlta during the 3rd quarter valued at about $130,000. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acquired a new position in TransAlta during the 3rd quarter valued at about $194,000. Metis Global Partners LLC acquired a new position in TransAlta during the 3rd quarter valued at about $360,000. PCJ Investment Counsel Ltd. acquired a new position in TransAlta during the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,573,000. Finally, Mirabella Financial Services LLP purchased a new stake in TransAlta during the 3rd quarter valued at about $200,000. 59.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on TAC. Scotiabank lowered TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com lowered TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Cibc World Mkts raised TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, CIBC raised TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and decreased 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, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.