Wealth High Governance Capital Ltda Purchases Shares of 124,122 TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

Wealth High Governance Capital Ltda purchased a new stake in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 124,122 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,756,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Tobam purchased a new position in shares of TransAlta in the 4th quarter worth $46,000. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in shares of TransAlta during the 3rd quarter worth about $61,000. Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new position in shares of TransAlta during the 3rd quarter worth about $130,000. Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of TransAlta during the 4th quarter worth about $145,000. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of TransAlta during the 4th quarter worth about $150,000. 59.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TAC has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Scotiabank lowered shares of TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com lowered shares of TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, CIBC upgraded shares of TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $23.00 to $19.50 in a 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, TransAlta currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $19.50.

TransAlta Stock Up 6.7 %

NYSE:TAC opened at $9.35 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $11.64 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.13. The company has a market cap of $2.78 billion, a PE ratio of 22.79 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94. TransAlta Co. has a twelve month low of $5.94 and a twelve month high of $14.64.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $484.60 million during the quarter. Analysts anticipate that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 EPS for the current year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Sunday, June 1st will be given a dividend of $0.0458 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This is a boost from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. This represents a $0.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.96%. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.90%.

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.