Millennium Management LLC Decreases Position in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

Millennium Management LLC decreased its position in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) by 34.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,505,034 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 2,890,679 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC owned 1.85% of TransAlta worth $77,831,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Tobam acquired a new position in TransAlta during the fourth quarter valued at $46,000. Ballentine Partners LLC acquired a new position in TransAlta in the 4th quarter valued at about $145,000. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of TransAlta in the 4th quarter valued at $147,000. Private Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of TransAlta during the fourth quarter worth $150,000. Finally, Sage Investment Counsel LLC purchased a new position in shares of TransAlta in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $156,000. Institutional investors own 59.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on TAC. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on TransAlta in a research report on Friday, April 11th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Scotiabank downgraded TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. CIBC raised shares of TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $23.00 to $19.50 in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of TransAlta from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $19.75.

TransAlta Stock Down 1.9%

Shares of NYSE:TAC opened at $8.98 on Thursday. TransAlta Co. has a 52 week low of $6.78 and a 52 week high of $14.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.74. The company has a market cap of $2.66 billion, a PE ratio of 21.90 and a beta of 0.71. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.03 and a 200 day simple moving average of $10.87.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.07 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.09 by ($0.02). TransAlta had a return on equity of 18.47% and a net margin of 6.38%. The business had revenue of $526.69 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $509.31 million. As a group, research analysts expect that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Sunday, June 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.0458 per share. This is a boost from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.04%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio is presently -900.00%.

TransAlta 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.