PCJ Investment Counsel Ltd. Raises Position in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

PCJ Investment Counsel Ltd. grew its stake in shares of TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) by 18.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 294,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 46,250 shares during the period. TransAlta comprises 1.4% of PCJ Investment Counsel Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest holding. PCJ Investment Counsel Ltd.’s holdings in TransAlta were worth $4,160,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Rubric Capital Management LP grew its holdings in shares of TransAlta by 20.0% during the 3rd quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 5,622,961 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $58,254,000 after purchasing an additional 935,803 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of TransAlta by 9.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,593,023 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,613,000 after purchasing an additional 408,184 shares during the last quarter. Yaupon Capital Management LP boosted its position in TransAlta by 69.9% in the third quarter. Yaupon Capital Management LP now owns 2,685,955 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $27,840,000 after purchasing an additional 1,105,191 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its position in TransAlta by 37.8% during the third quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,286,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $13,343,000 after purchasing an additional 352,860 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Artemis Investment Management LLP purchased a new stake in shares of TransAlta in the fourth quarter worth $7,139,000. 59.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

TransAlta Stock Performance

Shares of TransAlta stock opened at $9.32 on Friday. TransAlta Co. has a 52 week low of $5.94 and a 52 week high of $14.64. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $11.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $11.09. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $2.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.72 and a beta of 0.89.

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

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Sunday, June 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.0458 per share. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.97%. This is a boost 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.