TransAlta Corporation (NYSE:TAC) Shares Sold by Janney Montgomery Scott LLC

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lessened its position in TransAlta Corporation (NYSE:TAC - Free Report) TSE: TA by 94.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 13,141 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 246,116 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC's holdings in TransAlta were worth $123,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in TAC. NBC Securities Inc. raised its position in TransAlta by 145,600.0% in the first quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 2,914 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 2,912 shares in the last quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of TransAlta in the 4th quarter valued at about $147,000. Tobam increased its holdings in shares of TransAlta by 239.2% in the 1st quarter. Tobam now owns 10,943 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $102,000 after purchasing an additional 7,717 shares in the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main acquired a new stake in shares of TransAlta in the fourth quarter valued at about $167,000. Finally, Two Sigma Investments LP acquired a new position in TransAlta during the fourth quarter worth about $195,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 59.00% of the company's stock.

TransAlta Price Performance

TAC stock traded up $0.22 on Friday, reaching $11.42. The company had a trading volume of 1,151,275 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,282,248. TransAlta Corporation has a 1 year low of $6.78 and a 1 year high of $14.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.19, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.84. The company's fifty day moving average is $10.07 and its 200 day moving average is $10.51. The company has a market cap of $3.38 billion, a P/E ratio of -570.71 and a beta of 0.76.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC - Get Free Report) TSE: TA last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.09 by ($0.02). TransAlta had a net margin of 0.01% and a negative return on equity of 1.64%. The company had revenue of $526.69 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $509.31 million. On average, research analysts forecast that TransAlta Corporation will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wall Street Zen upgraded TransAlta from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, June 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on TransAlta from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded TransAlta from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $19.75.

TransAlta 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.