Lindbrook Capital LLC Raises Position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Lindbrook Capital LLC lifted its position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 111.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,598 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,368 shares during the period. Lindbrook Capital LLC’s holdings in Fortis were worth $107,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in FTS. Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its position in Fortis by 11.4% in the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 12,664,645 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $481,130,000 after acquiring an additional 1,294,939 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of Fortis by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 8,080,594 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $332,583,000 after buying an additional 561,176 shares during the last quarter. Guardian Capital LP increased its holdings in Fortis by 61.8% in the 3rd quarter. Guardian Capital LP now owns 1,304,474 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $49,776,000 after buying an additional 498,210 shares in the last quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Fortis by 59.7% in the 3rd quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,218,177 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $46,483,000 after buying an additional 455,435 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd lifted its stake in Fortis by 5,208.4% during the 3rd quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 440,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,848,000 after acquiring an additional 432,300 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Stock Up 0.2 %

FTS stock opened at $39.16 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $39.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $39.97. The company has a market cap of $19.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.42. Fortis Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.30 and a fifty-two week high of $46.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.67.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $2.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.39 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.00% and a net margin of 13.22%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.53 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 2.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a $0.4382 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.48%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is 55.22%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com cut shares of Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Two research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.13.

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.