John G Ullman & Associates Inc. Sells 300 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

John G Ullman & Associates Inc. lessened its holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 5.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,900 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 300 shares during the quarter. John G Ullman & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $204,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in Fortis by 34.1% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,006 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 256 shares during the last quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Fortis by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,087 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $211,000 after buying an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Code Waechter LLC grew its position in shares of Fortis by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Code Waechter LLC now owns 18,708 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $778,000 after buying an additional 277 shares in the last quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. grew its position in shares of Fortis by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 89,681 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,728,000 after buying an additional 447 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of Fortis by 724.3% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 577 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 507 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FTS has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Raymond James downgraded Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Fortis in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis presently has an average rating of “Hold”.

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of FTS stock opened at $43.83 on Monday. Fortis Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.86 and a 1-year high of $46.06. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $42.65 and its 200 day moving average is $43.63. The company has a market cap of $21.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.57, a PEG ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.63.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.09% and a net margin of 14.12%. The company had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.08 billion. During the same quarter 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 fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.4324 per share. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. Fortis’s payout ratio is currently 71.61%.

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.