Value Partners Investments Inc. Sells 1,216 Shares of Fortis $FTS

Value Partners Investments Inc. lessened its position in shares of Fortis (NYSE:FTS) by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 109,864 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,216 shares during the quarter. Value Partners Investments Inc.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $5,236,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its position in Fortis by 19.1% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 565,150 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $25,760,000 after purchasing an additional 90,776 shares during the period. United Services Automobile Association lifted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 7.5% during the 1st quarter. United Services Automobile Association now owns 15,716 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $712,000 after acquiring an additional 1,097 shares during the period. Guardian Partners Inc. boosted its position in shares of Fortis by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Guardian Partners Inc. now owns 298,308 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $13,900,000 after acquiring an additional 6,712 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Fortis by 218.6% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,648,592 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $166,303,000 after acquiring an additional 2,503,531 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Banque Transatlantique SA bought a new stake in Fortis in the first quarter valued at about $135,000. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on FTS shares. CIBC upgraded shares of Fortis from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Desjardins upgraded Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Zacks Research cut Fortis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Cibc World Mkts upgraded Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Finally, TD Securities reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Fortis in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $72.00.

Fortis Trading Up 0.3%

FTS stock opened at $49.37 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $49.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $47.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.58 and a quick ratio of 0.47. Fortis has a fifty-two week low of $40.32 and a fifty-two week high of $51.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.31, a P/E/G ratio of 3.84 and a beta of 0.48.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.04. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.24% and a net margin of 14.48%.The company had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.91 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.67 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Fortis will post 2.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 19th were issued a dividend of $0.4448 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 19th. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Fortis’s payout ratio is currently 72.84%.

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.