EAM Investors LLC Makes New $1.40 Million Investment in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

EAM Investors LLC bought a new stake in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 98,871 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,398,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of TransAlta by 638.9% during the 4th quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 7,995,489 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $112,936,000 after purchasing an additional 6,913,431 shares in the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership acquired a new stake in TransAlta during the 4th quarter worth approximately $67,038,000. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in TransAlta by 512.0% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,870,226 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $68,880,000 after buying an additional 4,074,395 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of TransAlta by 79.7% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,255,923 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $116,764,000 after buying an additional 3,662,900 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can increased its position in shares of TransAlta by 8.4% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 9,290,110 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $131,222,000 after acquiring an additional 716,139 shares in the last quarter. 59.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TAC has been the topic of several research reports. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com lowered TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on TransAlta in a report on Friday, April 11th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Scotiabank lowered TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, CIBC raised TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $23.00 to $19.50 in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Four equities research 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.com, TransAlta presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $19.50.

TransAlta Trading Up 0.2 %

TransAlta stock opened at $8.63 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $9.63 and a 200-day moving average of $11.07. The company has a market cap of $2.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.05 and a beta of 0.72. TransAlta Co. has a one year low of $6.14 and a one year high of $14.64.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported ($0.16) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by ($0.28). TransAlta had a net margin of 6.38% and a return on equity of 18.47%. The company had revenue of $484.60 million during the quarter. On average, equities analysts expect that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 represents a $0.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.12%. This is an increase from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th. TransAlta’s 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.