Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB Takes $149,000 Position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 3,279 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $149,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTS. Ridgewood Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortis during the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets purchased a new stake in Fortis during the 3rd quarter worth $44,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in Fortis by 52.2% in the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,000 after buying an additional 630 shares in the last quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA purchased a new position in Fortis in the 3rd quarter valued at about $209,000. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Fortis during the third quarter valued at about $272,000. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of FTS stock opened at $41.16 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.29, a PEG ratio of 3.93 and a beta of 0.49. Fortis Inc. has a one year low of $36.86 and a one year high of $46.06. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.74.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.01 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.01% and a net margin of 14.06%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.63 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.4382 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.26%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 76.05%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on FTS. Bank of America assumed coverage on Fortis in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating on the stock. Raymond James lowered Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th.

Fortis Company 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.