Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. Boosts Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 22.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 13,669 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,525 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $562,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of FTS. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in shares of Fortis by 22.4% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 24,569 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,215,000 after acquiring an additional 4,500 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Fortis by 9.9% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,569 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $177,000 after acquiring an additional 322 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors L.P. raised its position in shares of Fortis by 9.1% in the first quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 26,923 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,333,000 after acquiring an additional 2,249 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. raised its position in shares of Fortis by 45.3% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 510,446 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $25,266,000 after acquiring an additional 159,068 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Fortis by 32.5% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 212,935 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $10,540,000 after acquiring an additional 52,248 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.13.

Fortis Stock Up 1.1 %

FTS opened at $38.05 on Friday. Fortis Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.30 and a twelve month high of $46.28. The company has a market cap of $18.76 billion, a PE ratio of 16.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $39.09 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.93.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01. Fortis had a net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 7.00%. The company had revenue of $2.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.53 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.4382 per share. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 76.09%.

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.