Russell Investments Group Ltd. Acquires 14,256 Shares of TransAlta Corporation $TAC

Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in TransAlta Corporation (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) by 25.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 70,824 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,256 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in TransAlta were worth $661,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in TransAlta by 0.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,291,968 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $96,055,000 after acquiring an additional 62,145 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in shares of TransAlta by 280.1% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 5,385,966 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $76,211,000 after buying an additional 3,969,037 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its stake in TransAlta by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 5,049,100 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,119,000 after purchasing an additional 33,676 shares in the last quarter. Potrero Capital Research LLC raised its stake in TransAlta by 373.2% in the 4th quarter. Potrero Capital Research LLC now owns 2,323,944 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,884,000 after purchasing an additional 1,832,803 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank raised its stake in TransAlta by 17.6% in the 4th quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 2,042,448 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $28,850,000 after purchasing an additional 305,647 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 59.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on the stock. Scotiabank upgraded shares of TransAlta from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $16.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Friday, July 18th. TD Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $20.00 target price (up from $19.00) on shares of TransAlta in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. National Bankshares reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of TransAlta in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 12th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on shares of TransAlta from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, TransAlta has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $19.88.

TransAlta Trading Down 2.5%

Shares of TransAlta stock opened at $12.30 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.64 billion, a PE ratio of -29.27 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.98. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $11.80 and its 200 day moving average is $10.34. TransAlta Corporation has a 1 year low of $7.82 and a 1 year high of $14.64.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $451.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $473.94 million. TransAlta had a negative net margin of 6.79% and a negative return on equity of 2.06%. Equities research analysts forecast that TransAlta Corporation will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Monday, September 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.065 per share. This is a boost from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.05. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. This represents a $0.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. TransAlta’s payout ratio is presently -45.24%.

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.