BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp Reduces Stock Holdings in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp cut its position in shares of TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) by 15.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 142,027 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 25,041 shares during the period. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings in TransAlta were worth $1,007,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. NBC Securities Inc. grew its position in TransAlta by 156.3% in the first quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 4,100 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 2,500 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in shares of TransAlta by 1,381.5% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,237 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 3,951 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of TransAlta during the 4th quarter worth about $33,000. Mather Group LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of TransAlta during the 2nd quarter worth about $64,000. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC purchased a new stake in TransAlta in the 1st quarter valued at about $66,000. 59.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, StockNews.com cut shares of TransAlta from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th.

TransAlta Stock Performance

Shares of TransAlta stock opened at $10.36 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.43, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.68 and a beta of 0.91. The business has a 50-day moving average of $8.63 and a 200 day moving average of $7.46. TransAlta Co. has a 12 month low of $5.94 and a 12 month high of $10.60.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.08. TransAlta had a return on equity of 47.71% and a net margin of 18.41%. The business had revenue of $425.37 million for the quarter. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.17 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that TransAlta Co. will post 0.75 earnings per share for the current year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Sunday, September 1st will be given a $0.044 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th. This is an increase from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. This represents a $0.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.97%.

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.