Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership Has $48 Million Position in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership trimmed its position in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) by 25.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,398,079 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,175,956 shares during the quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership owned 1.14% of TransAlta worth $47,998,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tobam acquired a new stake in shares of TransAlta in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in shares of TransAlta during the 3rd quarter valued at $61,000. Ballentine Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of TransAlta in the fourth quarter worth $145,000. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC bought a new stake in TransAlta during the fourth quarter worth about $147,000. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC acquired a new stake in TransAlta during the fourth quarter worth about $150,000. 59.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TAC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Scotiabank downgraded shares of TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com cut TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Cibc World Mkts raised TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, CIBC raised 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. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $19.50.

TransAlta Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of TransAlta stock opened at $9.46 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $10.41 and its 200 day moving average is $11.20. TransAlta Co. has a one year low of $5.94 and a one year high of $14.64. The firm has a market cap of $2.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.06 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported ($0.16) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.12 by ($0.28). The company 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%. Equities research analysts anticipate that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 EPS for the current year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $0.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This is a boost from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio is 43.90%.

About TransAlta

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.