Mackenzie Financial Corp Buys 149,378 Shares of TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its stake in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC - Free Report) TSE: TA by 2.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,370,416 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 149,378 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp owned 2.06% of TransAlta worth $53,007,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its stake in TransAlta by 1.9% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 43,966,549 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $455,494,000 after acquiring an additional 812,221 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in TransAlta by 1.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,381,544 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $72,919,000 after acquiring an additional 82,419 shares during the last quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP boosted its stake in TransAlta by 28.6% in the third quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 4,404,844 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $38,322,000 after acquiring an additional 978,354 shares during the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its stake in TransAlta by 0.9% in the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 2,771,982 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $24,116,000 after acquiring an additional 24,226 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in TransAlta by 17.6% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 2,670,341 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $27,667,000 after acquiring an additional 399,141 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 59.00% of the company's stock.

TransAlta Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE TAC traded up $0.11 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $6.23. 1,036,515 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 691,345. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $6.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $7.48. The company has a market capitalization of $1.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 0.83. TransAlta Co. has a 12 month low of $5.94 and a 12 month high of $10.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.06, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC - Get Free Report) TSE: TA last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 23rd. The utilities provider reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.10 by ($0.30). TransAlta had a return on equity of 48.42% and a net margin of 20.05%. The firm had revenue of $624.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $305.79 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.45) earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 26.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that TransAlta Co. will post 0.5 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com cut shares of TransAlta from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, January 12th.

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.