Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC Decreases Stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC reduced its position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 21.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 5,700 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,532 shares during the period. Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Fortis were worth $234,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTS. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Fortis in the 4th quarter valued at about $104,121,000. Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its position in shares of Fortis by 11.4% during the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 12,664,645 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $481,130,000 after purchasing an additional 1,294,939 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Fortis by 3.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,872,872 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $678,990,000 after purchasing an additional 675,957 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Fortis by 187.1% during the second quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 911,114 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $39,260,000 after purchasing an additional 593,809 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Guardian Capital LP lifted its position in shares of Fortis by 61.8% during the third quarter. Guardian Capital LP now owns 1,304,474 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $49,776,000 after purchasing an additional 498,210 shares during the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com cut shares of Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.13.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE FTS opened at $37.14 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $39.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $39.96. Fortis Inc. has a 52-week low of $36.30 and a 52-week high of $46.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.42.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.01. Fortis had a net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 7.00%. The firm had revenue of $2.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.39 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.53 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 2.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a $0.4382 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.72%. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 76.09%.

Fortis Company Profile

Fortis Inc operates as an electric and gas utility company in Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean countries. It generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to approximately 447,000 retail customers in southeastern Arizona; and 103,000 retail customers in Arizona's Mohave and Santa Cruz counties with an aggregate capacity of 3,408 megawatts (MW), including 68 MW of solar capacity and 250 MV of wind capacity.