TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) Sets New 12-Month Low at $5.95

TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA)’s stock price hit a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $5.95 and last traded at $5.96, with a volume of 127032 shares. The stock had previously closed at $6.10.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded TransAlta from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 12th.

TransAlta Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $1.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.91. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $6.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $7.48.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 23rd. The utilities provider reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.10 by ($0.30). The firm had revenue of $624.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $305.79 million. TransAlta had a net margin of 20.05% and a return on equity of 48.42%. The business’s revenue was down 26.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.45) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that TransAlta Co. will post 0.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TransAlta

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its stake in shares of TransAlta by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 43,966,549 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $455,494,000 after buying an additional 812,221 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of TransAlta by 25.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,498,451 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $87,242,000 after buying an additional 2,116,907 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of TransAlta by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 6,370,416 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $53,007,000 after buying an additional 149,378 shares during the period. Finally, Rubric Capital Management LP boosted its stake in shares of TransAlta by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 5,145,630 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $42,760,000 after buying an additional 740,786 shares during the period. 59.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.