Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Shares Sold by Clearbridge Investments LLC

Clearbridge Investments LLC reduced its stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 2.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,892,968 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 67,737 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC’s holdings in Fortis were worth $120,261,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FTS. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Fortis by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,722,993 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $902,656,000 after purchasing an additional 364,391 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. now owns 12,266,121 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $509,425,000 after buying an additional 173,226 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in Fortis by 21.8% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 5,190,336 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $235,839,000 after buying an additional 930,331 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Fortis during the fourth quarter worth about $182,242,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Fortis by 9.5% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,890,184 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $131,330,000 after acquiring an additional 250,630 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:FTS opened at $45.23 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.63. The company has a market capitalization of $22.59 billion, a PE ratio of 19.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.48. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $43.92 and a 200-day moving average of $43.71. Fortis Inc. has a one year low of $36.86 and a one year high of $46.06.

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

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.4324 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.82%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 72.03%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

About Fortis

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.