Renaissance Technologies LLC Has $23.96 Million Position in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

Renaissance Technologies LLC cut its position in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) by 2.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,693,300 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 37,100 shares during the quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC’s holdings in TransAlta were worth $23,960,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new stake in TransAlta during the 3rd quarter worth $998,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new stake in shares of TransAlta in the third quarter worth about $1,812,000. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of TransAlta by 281.5% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 143,062 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,482,000 after purchasing an additional 105,562 shares during the period. Ballentine Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of TransAlta during the 4th quarter valued at about $145,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of TransAlta by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 122,621 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,277,000 after purchasing an additional 2,524 shares during the period. 59.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

TransAlta Trading Up 1.8 %

TransAlta stock opened at $8.68 on Friday. 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 firm has a 50-day moving average of $9.77 and a 200-day moving average of $11.11. The company has a market cap of $2.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.16 and a beta of 0.72. TransAlta Co. has a one year low of $5.94 and a one year high of $14.64.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported ($0.16) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.12 by ($0.28). The company 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 earnings per share 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $0.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.11%. This is a boost from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.90%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Scotiabank lowered shares of TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on TransAlta in a research note on Friday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Cibc World Mkts raised TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, CIBC raised TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $23.00 to $19.50 in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, TransAlta presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $19.50.

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.