D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. Cuts Stake in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. cut its stake in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC - Free Report) TSE: TA by 9.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 692,516 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 70,962 shares during the period. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. owned about 0.23% of TransAlta worth $9,789,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tobam purchased a new stake in shares of TransAlta in the 4th quarter valued at $46,000. Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new stake in TransAlta during the fourth quarter valued at about $145,000. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of TransAlta during the fourth quarter valued at about $147,000. Private Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of TransAlta in the fourth quarter worth about $150,000. Finally, Sage Investment Counsel LLC bought a new stake in shares of TransAlta in the 4th quarter valued at about $156,000. Institutional investors own 59.00% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Cibc World Mkts upgraded TransAlta from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. CIBC upgraded shares of TransAlta from a "neutral" rating to an "outperformer" rating and cut their target price for the stock from $23.00 to $19.50 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. Scotiabank cut shares of TransAlta from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of TransAlta from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $19.75.

TransAlta Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of TAC traded up $0.06 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $9.02. 144,084 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,147,862. 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 $2.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.04 and a beta of 0.71. The business's 50-day moving average price is $9.02 and its 200-day moving average price is $10.84. TransAlta Co. has a 1 year low of $6.78 and a 1 year high of $14.64.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC - Get Free Report) TSE: TA last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.07 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.09 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $526.69 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $509.31 million. TransAlta had a return on equity of 18.47% and a net margin of 6.38%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Sunday, June 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.0458 per share. This is an increase from TransAlta's previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $0.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.03%. TransAlta's dividend payout ratio is -900.00%.

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.