Sage Investment Counsel LLC Acquires New Holdings in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

Sage Investment Counsel LLC acquired a new stake in shares of TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 11,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $156,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Tobam purchased a new position in TransAlta during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in TransAlta in the third quarter valued at approximately $61,000. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new stake in TransAlta in the third quarter valued at approximately $130,000. Ballentine Partners LLC acquired a new stake in TransAlta in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $145,000. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC acquired a new stake in TransAlta in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $150,000. 59.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

TransAlta Trading Up 1.6 %

NYSE:TAC opened at $10.35 on Friday. TransAlta Co. has a 12 month low of $5.94 and a 12 month high of $14.64. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $12.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $11.03. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94. The company has a market capitalization of $3.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.23 and a beta of 0.83.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported ($0.16) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.12 by ($0.28). TransAlta had a return on equity of 18.47% and a net margin of 6.38%. The company had revenue of $484.60 million for the quarter. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Sunday, June 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.0458 per share. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This is a boost from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 39.02%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

TAC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Scotiabank downgraded shares of TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. CIBC upgraded shares of TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $23.00 to $19.50 in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Desjardins restated a “hold” rating on shares of TransAlta in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, TransAlta has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $19.50.

About TransAlta

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.