TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) Short Interest Down 15.3% in March

TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 12,800,000 shares, a decline of 15.3% from the February 28th total of 15,120,000 shares. Approximately 4.3% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 1,920,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.7 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TAC. Wellington Management Group LLP purchased a new stake in TransAlta in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $998,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of TransAlta by 9.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,593,023 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $47,613,000 after buying an additional 408,184 shares in the last quarter. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. acquired a new position in TransAlta during the third quarter worth $518,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new position in TransAlta in the third quarter worth $1,812,000. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in TransAlta in the third quarter valued at $646,000. 59.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on TAC shares. CIBC upgraded 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 research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Cibc World Mkts raised TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com cut TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Scotiabank lowered shares of TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, TransAlta presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $19.50.

TransAlta Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE TAC traded down $0.30 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $9.27. 548,897 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,127,246. The stock has a market cap of $2.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.57 and a beta of 0.89. TransAlta has a 1 year low of $5.94 and a 1 year high of $14.64. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $10.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $11.19. 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 (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported ($0.16) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by ($0.28). TransAlta had a net margin of 6.38% and a return on equity of 18.47%. The company had revenue of $484.60 million during the quarter. On average, research analysts forecast that TransAlta will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Sunday, June 1st will be paid a $0.0458 dividend. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This is a boost from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.90%.

TransAlta Company 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.