Signaturefd LLC Has $951,000 Stock Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Signaturefd LLC reduced its stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 2.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 23,113 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 561 shares during the quarter. Signaturefd LLC’s holdings in Fortis were worth $951,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Rational Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortis during the third quarter valued at $41,000. NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Fortis during the 3rd quarter worth about $96,000. Lindbrook Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Fortis by 111.2% during the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 2,598 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $107,000 after purchasing an additional 1,368 shares during the last quarter. Versor Investments LP boosted its position in Fortis by 12.0% in the third quarter. Versor Investments LP now owns 6,535 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $248,000 after buying an additional 700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC bought a new stake in Fortis during the fourth quarter worth about $254,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Fortis Trading Up 1.4 %

FTS opened at $39.02 on Tuesday. Fortis Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.30 and a 1-year high of $46.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.23 billion, a PE ratio of 16.96, a PEG ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $39.07 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $39.98.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.39 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 7.00%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.53 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.4382 per share. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.49%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. Fortis’s payout ratio is currently 55.65%.

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.