Short Interest in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) Expands By 50.6%

TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 15,120,000 shares, a growth of 50.6% from the February 13th total of 10,040,000 shares. Currently, 5.1% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,930,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 7.8 days.

Institutional Trading of TransAlta

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TAC. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new stake in TransAlta in the third quarter worth about $130,000. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. purchased a new position in shares of TransAlta during the third quarter worth approximately $194,000. Metis Global Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of TransAlta during the third quarter worth approximately $360,000. PCJ Investment Counsel Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of TransAlta during the third quarter worth approximately $2,573,000. Finally, Mirabella Financial Services LLP purchased a new position in shares of TransAlta during the third quarter worth approximately $200,000. Institutional investors own 59.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TAC has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Scotiabank cut TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Cibc World Mkts upgraded TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. CIBC upgraded TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $23.00 to $19.50 in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $19.50.

TransAlta Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:TAC traded up $0.13 during trading on Friday, reaching $9.54. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,555,939 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,162,290. 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 has a 12 month low of $5.94 and a 12 month high of $14.64. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $11.36 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $11.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.84 billion, a PE ratio of 23.26 and a beta of 0.89.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported ($0.16) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by ($0.28). The business had revenue of $484.60 million during the quarter. TransAlta had a net margin of 6.38% and a return on equity of 18.47%. On average, research analysts predict that TransAlta will post 0.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Sunday, June 1st will be paid a $0.0458 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.92%. This is an increase from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.