Summit Securities Group LLC Lowers Holdings in TransAlta Corporation $TAC

Key Points

• Summit Securities Group LLC reduced its stake in TransAlta Corporation by 55% in Q1, holding a total of 30,000 shares valued at $280,000 after the sale.
• Several institutional investors significantly increased their holdings in TransAlta, with NBC Securities boosting its stake by 145,600% during the same period.
• TransAlta recently raised its quarterly dividend from $0.05 to $0.065, reflecting a 2.1% dividend yield as the company continues to adjust its financial strategies.

Summit Securities Group LLC cut its stake in shares of TransAlta Corporation (NYSE:TAC - Free Report) TSE: TA by 55.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 30,000 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 36,668 shares during the quarter. Summit Securities Group LLC's holdings in TransAlta were worth $280,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of TransAlta by 145,600.0% during the first quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 2,914 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 2,912 shares during the period. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of TransAlta by 48,666.7% during the first quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 4,389 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 4,380 shares during the period. Tobam lifted its holdings in shares of TransAlta by 239.2% during the first quarter. Tobam now owns 10,943 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $102,000 after purchasing an additional 7,717 shares during the period. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main acquired a new stake in shares of TransAlta during the fourth quarter worth $167,000. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new stake in TransAlta in the first quarter valued at $119,000. 59.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on TAC shares. Scotiabank raised TransAlta from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating and raised their target price for the company from $16.00 to $20.00 in a report on Friday, July 18th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their target price on TransAlta from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Jefferies Financial Group raised TransAlta from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, June 12th. Wall Street Zen raised TransAlta from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, June 14th. Finally, TD Securities reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $20.00 target price (up previously from $19.00) on shares of TransAlta in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $19.88.

TransAlta Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:TAC traded down $0.1650 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $12.1450. 394,073 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,559,022. The stock has a market cap of $3.60 billion, a P/E ratio of -28.94 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.98. TransAlta Corporation has a twelve month low of $7.82 and a twelve month high of $14.64. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $11.69 and a 200-day moving average price of $10.29.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC - Get Free Report) TSE: TA last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.13 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $451.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $473.94 million. TransAlta had a negative return on equity of 2.06% and a negative net margin of 6.79%. On average, research analysts forecast that TransAlta Corporation will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Monday, September 1st will be given a dividend of $0.065 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 29th. This represents a $0.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. This is a boost from TransAlta's previous quarterly dividend of $0.05. TransAlta's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -45.24%.

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.