DORCHESTER WEALTH MANAGEMENT Co Sells 2,200 Shares of TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

DORCHESTER WEALTH MANAGEMENT Co reduced its stake in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) by 1.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 139,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 2,200 shares during the period. DORCHESTER WEALTH MANAGEMENT Co’s holdings in TransAlta were worth $1,972,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in TAC. Yaupon Capital Management LP boosted its position in shares of TransAlta by 69.9% in 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. Rubric Capital Management LP boosted its position in shares of TransAlta by 20.0% in the 3rd quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 5,622,961 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $58,254,000 after purchasing an additional 935,803 shares during the last quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP bought a new position in shares of TransAlta in the 4th quarter worth $7,139,000. Potrero Capital Research LLC bought a new position in shares of TransAlta in the 3rd quarter worth $5,088,000. Finally, FMR LLC raised its stake in TransAlta by 9.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,593,023 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,613,000 after buying an additional 408,184 shares during the period. 59.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com downgraded TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. CIBC raised TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $23.00 to $19.50 in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Cibc World Mkts raised TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Desjardins reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of TransAlta in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Scotiabank downgraded TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, TransAlta has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $19.50.

TransAlta Stock Performance

TAC opened at $10.88 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $12.65 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $10.98. TransAlta Co. has a 1 year low of $5.94 and a 1 year high of $14.64. The company has a market capitalization of $3.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.53 and a beta of 0.83. 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 released 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). TransAlta had a net margin of 6.38% and a return on equity of 18.47%. The firm had revenue of $484.60 million during the quarter. Equities analysts expect that TransAlta Co. will post 0.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Shareholders 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 39.02%.

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.