Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Stock Holdings Lowered by Truist Financial Corp

Truist Financial Corp reduced its holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 8.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 63,320 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 5,992 shares during the quarter. Truist Financial Corp’s holdings in Fortis were worth $2,604,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 109,817 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,517,000 after purchasing an additional 313 shares in the last quarter. Pacifica Partners Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Pacifica Partners Inc. now owns 10,208 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $413,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 8,745 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $360,000 after purchasing an additional 524 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 13,582 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $561,000 after acquiring an additional 577 shares during the period. Finally, Signaturefd LLC lifted its position in shares of Fortis by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 23,674 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $899,000 after acquiring an additional 691 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Two 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.13.

Fortis Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:FTS opened at $40.40 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 0.60. The company has a market cap of $19.92 billion, a PE ratio of 17.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.42. Fortis Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.30 and a 52 week high of $46.28. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.15 and a 200 day simple moving average of $39.96.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.39 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 13.66% and a return on equity of 7.02%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.53 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a $0.4382 dividend. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 55.17%.

Fortis 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.