Raymond James Financial Inc. Takes $822,000 Position in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 58,118 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $822,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of TransAlta by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,229,823 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $144,680,000 after purchasing an additional 150,554 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can grew its stake in TransAlta by 8.4% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 9,290,110 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $131,222,000 after buying an additional 716,139 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in TransAlta by 79.7% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,255,923 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $116,764,000 after buying an additional 3,662,900 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its stake in TransAlta by 638.9% in the fourth quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 7,995,489 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $112,936,000 after buying an additional 6,913,431 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of TransAlta by 512.0% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,870,226 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $68,880,000 after acquiring an additional 4,074,395 shares during the period. 59.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of TransAlta in a research note on Friday, April 11th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. CIBC upgraded shares of TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $23.00 to $19.50 in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Scotiabank lowered TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Four 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.com, TransAlta has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $19.50.

TransAlta Stock Performance

Shares of TAC opened at $9.04 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.04 and a beta of 0.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.74. TransAlta Co. has a 1 year low of $6.78 and a 1 year high of $14.64. The company’s fifty day moving average is $9.15 and its two-hundred day moving average is $10.92.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last issued its quarterly 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). The firm had revenue of $484.60 million for the quarter. TransAlta had a return on equity of 18.47% and a net margin of 6.38%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Sunday, June 1st will be issued a $0.0458 dividend. This is a boost from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.03%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.90%.

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.