Summit Securities Group LLC Invests $943,000 in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 66,668 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $943,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of TransAlta during the 4th quarter worth $147,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in TransAlta by 20,398.6% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 191,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,703,000 after buying an additional 190,115 shares in the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership purchased a new position in TransAlta in the fourth quarter valued at about $67,038,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of TransAlta by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,229,823 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $144,680,000 after acquiring an additional 150,554 shares during the period. Finally, Guardian Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of TransAlta during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,052,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 59.00% of the company’s stock.

TransAlta Stock Performance

NYSE:TAC opened at $9.47 on Friday. TransAlta Co. has a 1-year low of $5.94 and a 1-year high of $14.64. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $10.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $11.18. The firm has a market cap of $2.82 billion, a PE ratio of 23.09 and a beta of 0.89. 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 quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported ($0.16) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by ($0.28). The business 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, equities analysts expect that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 EPS for the current year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Sunday, June 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.0458 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $0.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.93%. This is an increase from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.90%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. CIBC raised TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $23.00 to $19.50 in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Scotiabank downgraded shares of TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com cut shares of TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Cibc World Mkts raised TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, TransAlta has an average 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.