American Century Companies Inc. Purchases 4,074,395 Shares of TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) by 512.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 4,870,226 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,074,395 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned approximately 1.64% of TransAlta worth $68,880,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of TAC. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in TransAlta by 638.9% in the 4th quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 7,995,489 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $112,936,000 after buying an additional 6,913,431 shares during the period. Yaupon Capital Management LP grew its holdings in TransAlta by 69.9% during the 3rd quarter. Yaupon Capital Management LP now owns 2,685,955 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,840,000 after buying an additional 1,105,191 shares in the last quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP raised its position in shares of TransAlta by 20.0% during the third quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 5,622,961 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $58,254,000 after buying an additional 935,803 shares during the last quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP purchased a new position in shares of TransAlta in the fourth quarter worth $7,139,000. Finally, Potrero Capital Research LLC bought a new position in shares of TransAlta during the third quarter worth $5,088,000. 59.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

TransAlta Stock Up 0.5 %

NYSE TAC opened at $9.83 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94. TransAlta Co. has a 52 week low of $5.94 and a 52 week high of $14.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.98 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a fifty day moving average of $10.86 and a two-hundred day moving average of $11.19.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last issued 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 net margin of 6.38% and a return on equity of 18.47%. The firm had revenue of $484.60 million for the quarter. On average, analysts predict that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Sunday, June 1st will be issued a $0.0458 dividend. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.86%. This is an increase from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th. TransAlta’s dividend 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.