TransAlta Corporation $TAC Shares Sold by Bank of Nova Scotia

Bank of Nova Scotia cut its stake in shares of TransAlta Corporation (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) by 10.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,316,630 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 145,876 shares during the quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia owned about 0.44% of TransAlta worth $14,199,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in TAC. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. raised its stake in shares of TransAlta by 19.5% during the 2nd quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 70,554 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $754,000 after buying an additional 11,532 shares during the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in TransAlta during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,039,000. Timelo Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in TransAlta during the second quarter worth about $647,000. CenterBook Partners LP acquired a new stake in shares of TransAlta in the second quarter valued at approximately $8,367,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of TransAlta by 1,150.1% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 904,342 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,456,000 after purchasing an additional 832,000 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 59.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of TransAlta in a research note on Monday, November 10th. CIBC reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of TransAlta in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of TransAlta from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 5th. Natl Bk Canada lowered shares of TransAlta from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of TransAlta in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, TransAlta currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $19.88.

TransAlta Stock Performance

Shares of TAC stock opened at $14.62 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.22. The company has a market cap of $4.34 billion, a PE ratio of -30.46 and a beta of 0.75. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $15.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $13.08. TransAlta Corporation has a 52 week low of $7.82 and a 52 week high of $17.88.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported ($0.01) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.06 by ($0.07). TransAlta had a positive return on equity of 3.00% and a negative net margin of 7.39%.The company had revenue of $441.57 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $558.84 million. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that TransAlta Corporation will post 0.41 EPS for the current year.

TransAlta Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.065 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 1st. This represents a $0.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -39.58%.

TransAlta Company 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.