Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC Reduces Holdings in Fortis $FTS

Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC decreased its position in shares of Fortis (NYSE:FTS) by 7.9% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 7,708 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 663 shares during the period. Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Fortis were worth $368,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Fortis by 286.7% during the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,106 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 820 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in Fortis during the 1st quarter worth $393,000. JCIC Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Fortis by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,377 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $245,000 after acquiring an additional 290 shares in the last quarter. Wealthquest Corp acquired a new position in Fortis during the 1st quarter worth $335,000. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Fortis by 100.0% during the 1st quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,828 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,000 after acquiring an additional 914 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Desjardins raised shares of Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. National Bankshares reissued a “sector perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Fortis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. CIBC raised shares of Fortis from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a report on Monday, August 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortis presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $72.00.

Fortis Trading Down 0.2%

Fortis stock opened at $51.64 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $50.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $48.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.25, a PEG ratio of 4.03 and a beta of 0.50. Fortis has a 52-week low of $40.32 and a 52-week high of $51.95.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.91 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.48% and a return on equity of 7.24%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.67 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Fortis will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 19th were given a dividend of $0.4448 per share. This is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 19th. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.4%. Fortis’s payout ratio is presently 73.25%.

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.