Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on TransAlta (NYSE:TAC)

TransAlta Corporation (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) saw some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock traders acquired 3,917 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 57% compared to the typical volume of 2,490 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on TAC. Zacks Research cut TransAlta from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. CIBC reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of TransAlta in a report on Monday, October 20th. TD Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $20.00 target price (up from $19.00) on shares of TransAlta in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of TransAlta in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Scotiabank restated an “outperform” rating on shares of TransAlta in a research note on Monday, October 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, TransAlta has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $19.88.

TransAlta Trading Down 14.7%

NYSE TAC traded down $2.49 on Thursday, reaching $14.39. The company had a trading volume of 2,005,616 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,599,289. The firm has a market cap of $4.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -33.73 and a beta of 0.80. TransAlta has a fifty-two week low of $7.82 and a fifty-two week high of $17.88. The business has a 50 day moving average of $14.72 and a two-hundred day moving average of $12.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.98, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.72.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by ($0.13). TransAlta had a negative return on equity of 2.06% and a negative net margin of 6.79%. Analysts forecast that TransAlta will post 0.41 EPS for the current year.

TransAlta Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.065 per share. This represents a $0.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 1st. TransAlta’s payout ratio is currently -42.86%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TransAlta

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of TAC. Sowell Financial Services LLC raised its stake in TransAlta by 6.0% in the second quarter. Sowell Financial Services LLC now owns 23,892 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $258,000 after buying an additional 1,359 shares in the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC grew its stake in TransAlta by 27.7% during the third quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 15,002 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $205,000 after acquiring an additional 3,257 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning grew its stake in shares of TransAlta by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 51,336 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $554,000 after buying an additional 3,322 shares in the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd boosted its stake in shares of TransAlta by 48,666.7% during the 1st quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 4,389 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 4,380 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of TransAlta by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 152,816 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,660,000 after purchasing an additional 5,214 shares during the period. 59.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.