Cardinal Point Capital Management ULC Sells 1,090 Shares of Fortis $FTS

Cardinal Point Capital Management ULC cut its stake in Fortis (NYSE:FTS) by 9.2% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 10,741 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,090 shares during the quarter. Cardinal Point Capital Management ULC’s holdings in Fortis were worth $512,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 25.6% during the 2nd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 377,359 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $18,083,000 after buying an additional 76,850 shares in the last quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Fortis by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. now owns 937,252 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $44,661,000 after acquiring an additional 19,351 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc grew its position in Fortis by 4.7% during the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 13,474,508 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $642,076,000 after acquiring an additional 603,772 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Fortis during the 2nd quarter worth $632,000. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC grew its position in Fortis by 47.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 10,250 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $489,000 after acquiring an additional 3,293 shares during the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortis Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of NYSE:FTS opened at $51.42 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $25.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.16, a P/E/G ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.58 and a quick ratio of 0.47. The business’s 50-day moving average is $50.14 and its 200-day moving average is $48.77. Fortis has a 1 year low of $40.32 and a 1 year high of $52.47.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.04. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.24% and a net margin of 14.48%.The business had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.91 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.67 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Fortis will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 19th were paid a dividend of $0.4448 per share. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 19th. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.5%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 72.84%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FTS has been the topic of a number of research reports. Zacks Research lowered Fortis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. TD Securities reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Fortis in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Desjardins upgraded Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, Scotiabank reissued a “sector perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a research note on Monday, October 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $72.00.

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.