Alliancebernstein L.P. Purchases 402,499 Shares of TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its position in shares of TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) by 93.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 833,728 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 402,499 shares during the quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P.’s holdings in TransAlta were worth $11,797,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in TAC. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in TransAlta by 321.7% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 405,715 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,735,000 after acquiring an additional 309,509 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC increased its stake in TransAlta by 1,279.0% during the 4th quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 521,534 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,367,000 after acquiring an additional 483,713 shares during the period. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new position in TransAlta during the 4th quarter worth $943,000. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC bought a new position in TransAlta during the 4th quarter worth $147,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in TransAlta by 20,398.6% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 191,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,703,000 after acquiring an additional 190,115 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 59.00% of the company’s stock.

TransAlta Trading Up 8.0 %

Shares of TAC opened at $8.81 on Thursday. TransAlta Co. has a 52-week low of $5.94 and a 52-week high of $14.64. The business’s fifty day moving average is $9.87 and its 200-day moving average is $11.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market cap of $2.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.49 and a beta of 0.72.

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). 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. Equities analysts anticipate that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Sunday, June 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.0458 per share. This is an increase from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.08%. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.90%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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