Wealth High Governance Capital Ltda Makes New Investment in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

Wealth High Governance Capital Ltda bought a new position in shares of TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 124,122 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,756,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of TransAlta by 2.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 122,621 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,277,000 after purchasing an additional 2,524 shares during the period. Tobam acquired a new stake in TransAlta in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in TransAlta by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 79,957 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,131,000 after acquiring an additional 5,593 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in TransAlta in the third quarter valued at approximately $61,000. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd raised its holdings in TransAlta by 27.4% in the third quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 29,672 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $307,000 after acquiring an additional 6,385 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 59.00% of the company’s stock.

TransAlta Stock Performance

NYSE:TAC opened at $9.35 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.79 and a beta of 0.89. TransAlta Co. has a 1-year low of $5.94 and a 1-year high of $14.64. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $11.64 and its 200 day moving average price is $11.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported ($0.16) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.12 by ($0.28). The company 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 expect that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 EPS for the current year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Sunday, June 1st will be given a dividend of $0.0458 per share. This is a positive change from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. TransAlta’s payout ratio is presently 43.90%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in 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. StockNews.com cut shares of TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Scotiabank cut shares of TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, CIBC raised shares of TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $23.00 to $19.50 in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $19.50.

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.