Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Shares Bought by Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. grew its stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 0.2% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 462,831 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 853 shares during the period. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $21,031,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Fortis by 123.5% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 666 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 368 shares in the last quarter. Ridgewood Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortis during the second quarter worth $32,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets purchased a new stake in shares of Fortis in the third quarter valued at $44,000. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Fortis in the second quarter valued at $80,000. Finally, Cromwell Holdings LLC lifted its position in Fortis by 52.2% during the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,000 after buying an additional 630 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group upgraded shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Bank of America started coverage on Fortis in a report on Friday, September 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating for the company. Raymond James cut Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 4th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Reduce”.

Fortis Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of FTS stock traded up $0.25 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $44.83. 398,821 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 715,675. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.69. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $44.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.41. The company has a market capitalization of $22.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.84, a P/E/G ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 0.47. Fortis Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.86 and a fifty-two week high of $46.06.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.26. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.03% and a net margin of 14.06%. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.01 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.63 EPS. Research analysts predict that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.615 per share. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $2.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.49%. Fortis’s payout ratio is 76.05%.

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.