Toronto Dominion Bank Increases Holdings in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its holdings in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) by 17.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,042,448 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 305,647 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank owned 0.69% of TransAlta worth $28,850,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its position in TransAlta by 23.3% during the fourth quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,586,911 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $22,423,000 after purchasing an additional 300,111 shares during the period. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. raised its position in TransAlta by 65.7% in the 4th quarter. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. now owns 82,850 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,172,000 after purchasing an additional 32,850 shares during the period. Potrero Capital Research LLC lifted its stake in TransAlta by 373.2% in the fourth quarter. Potrero Capital Research LLC now owns 2,323,944 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,884,000 after purchasing an additional 1,832,803 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new position in shares of TransAlta during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $428,000. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC bought a new position in shares of TransAlta during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,472,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 59.00% of the company’s stock.

TransAlta Price Performance

TAC opened at $9.10 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.20 and a beta of 0.71. 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 $6.78 and a 12-month high of $14.64. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $9.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $10.85.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $526.69 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $509.31 million. TransAlta had a return on equity of 18.47% and a net margin of 6.38%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Sunday, June 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.0458 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 dividend yield of 2.01%. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -900.00%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on TAC. Cibc World Mkts raised TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. CIBC raised shares of TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $23.00 to $19.50 in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of TransAlta from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of TransAlta in a report on Friday, April 11th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $19.75.

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.