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

Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new stake in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 66,668 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $943,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new position in shares of TransAlta during the 3rd quarter valued at $998,000. FMR LLC lifted 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 in the last quarter. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. acquired a new position in shares of TransAlta during the third quarter worth about $518,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new stake in shares of TransAlta in the third quarter worth about $1,812,000. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of TransAlta in the third quarter valued at about $646,000. 59.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

TransAlta Price Performance

TAC stock opened at $9.47 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.82 billion, a PE ratio of 23.09 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $10.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.18. TransAlta Co. has a 52-week low of $5.94 and a 52-week 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 (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 company had revenue of $484.60 million during the quarter. Analysts predict 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. Investors of record on Sunday, June 1st will be paid a $0.0458 dividend. This represents a $0.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.93%. This is an increase from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.90%.

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.