Corient Private Wealth LLC Takes $209,000 Position in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

Corient Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 14,747 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $209,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. First Eagle Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of TransAlta in the 4th quarter worth $270,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of TransAlta by 638.9% in the fourth 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 acquiring an additional 6,913,431 shares in the last quarter. Wealth High Governance Capital Ltda purchased a new stake in TransAlta in the fourth quarter worth about $1,756,000. PCJ Investment Counsel Ltd. grew its holdings in TransAlta by 18.6% during the 4th quarter. PCJ Investment Counsel Ltd. now owns 294,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,160,000 after acquiring an additional 46,250 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in TransAlta during the 4th quarter worth about $822,000. Institutional investors own 59.00% of the company’s stock.

TransAlta Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of TransAlta stock opened at $9.46 on Wednesday. TransAlta Co. has a 52-week low of $5.94 and a 52-week high of $14.64. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $10.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $11.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94. The company has a market cap of $2.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.06 and a beta of 0.89.

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

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Sunday, June 1st will be given a dividend of $0.0458 per share. This is a positive change from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.90%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on TAC. Scotiabank cut shares of TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Cibc World Mkts upgraded TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. CIBC raised TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $23.00 to $19.50 in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $19.50.

About TransAlta

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.