Short Interest in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) Expands By 50.6%

TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 15,120,000 shares, an increase of 50.6% from the February 13th total of 10,040,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,930,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 7.8 days. Approximately 5.1% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on TAC. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. CIBC raised shares of TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $23.00 to $19.50 in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Scotiabank lowered shares of TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Three 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 stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $19.50.

TransAlta Stock Up 1.3 %

NYSE TAC traded up $0.13 on Friday, hitting $9.54. The stock had a trading volume of 1,555,939 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,162,290. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $11.36 and its 200 day moving average price is $11.15. 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 has a 52-week low of $5.94 and a 52-week high of $14.64. The stock has a market cap of $2.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.26 and a beta of 0.89.

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 return on equity of 18.47% and a net margin of 6.38%. The firm had revenue of $484.60 million during the quarter. Equities research analysts anticipate that TransAlta will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Sunday, June 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.0458 per share. This is an increase from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th. TransAlta’s payout ratio is presently 43.90%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On TransAlta

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Tobam acquired a new stake in shares of TransAlta during the fourth quarter worth $46,000. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of TransAlta during the third quarter worth $61,000. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of TransAlta during the third quarter worth $130,000. Ballentine Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of TransAlta during the fourth quarter worth $145,000. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of TransAlta during the fourth quarter worth $147,000. 59.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.