Claret Asset Management Corp Lowers Position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Claret Asset Management Corp lowered its stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 5.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,501 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 300 shares during the quarter. Claret Asset Management Corp’s holdings in Fortis were worth $228,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Fortis by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 577,311 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $23,999,000 after buying an additional 28,642 shares during the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co grew its holdings in shares of Fortis by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 584,173 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $24,217,000 after acquiring an additional 19,105 shares in the last quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Fortis by 14.9% during the fourth quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 17,755 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $738,000 after acquiring an additional 2,300 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new position in Fortis in the fourth quarter worth $672,000. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its stake in Fortis by 135.0% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 7,542 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $313,000 after purchasing an additional 4,332 shares during the period. 57.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Fortis in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

Fortis Price Performance

NYSE FTS opened at $48.16 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30. The company has a market cap of $24.16 billion, a PE ratio of 20.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.46. Fortis Inc. has a 52 week low of $38.09 and a 52 week high of $48.38. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $45.05 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $43.86.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.09% and a net margin of 14.12%. The firm had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.08 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.72 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid a $0.4324 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.59%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 72.03%.

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.