Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ Has $754,000 Position in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ lessened its stake in shares of TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) by 78.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 52,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 188,200 shares during the quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ’s holdings in TransAlta were worth $754,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of TAC. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its holdings in TransAlta by 638.9% in the 4th quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 7,995,489 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $112,936,000 after acquiring an additional 6,913,431 shares during the period. Rubric Capital Management LP grew its position in shares of TransAlta by 20.0% in the third quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 5,622,961 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $58,254,000 after purchasing an additional 935,803 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of TransAlta by 9.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,593,023 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,613,000 after purchasing an additional 408,184 shares during the period. Yaupon Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in TransAlta by 69.9% during the 3rd quarter. Yaupon Capital Management LP now owns 2,685,955 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $27,840,000 after purchasing an additional 1,105,191 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in TransAlta by 37.8% in the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,286,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $13,343,000 after purchasing an additional 352,860 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 59.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on TAC. CIBC raised TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $23.00 to $19.50 in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com lowered shares of TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Scotiabank cut shares of TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $19.50.

TransAlta Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:TAC opened at $9.69 on Tuesday. TransAlta Co. has a 1 year low of $5.94 and a 1 year high of $14.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.62 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. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $11.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $11.15.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported ($0.16) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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%. As a group, research analysts predict that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Sunday, June 1st will be paid a $0.0458 dividend. This is an increase from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. This represents a $0.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. 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.