TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,380,000 shares, a drop of 19.1% from the September 30th total of 4,180,000 shares. Approximately 1.1% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 756,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.5 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of TransAlta by 1,381.5% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,237 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 3,951 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of TransAlta in the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. Financial Management Professionals Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of TransAlta in the third quarter worth $42,000. Mather Group LLC. purchased a new position in shares of TransAlta during the second quarter valued at $64,000. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC acquired a new position in TransAlta during the first quarter valued at $66,000. 59.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

TransAlta Stock Down 1.2 %

TAC stock opened at $10.09 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.43, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The firm has a market cap of $3.01 billion, a PE ratio of 6.68 and a beta of 0.92. TransAlta has a 12 month low of $5.94 and a 12 month high of $10.73. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $8.09.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $425.37 million during the quarter. TransAlta had a return on equity of 47.71% and a net margin of 18.41%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.17 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that TransAlta will post 0.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TransAlta Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Shareholders of record on Sunday, December 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.044 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.75%. TransAlta’s payout ratio is presently 11.26%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Desjardins initiated coverage on TransAlta in a research note on Wednesday. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. StockNews.com lowered TransAlta from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th.

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.