State of Tennessee Department of Treasury Raises Position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

State of Tennessee Department of Treasury raised its holdings in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 0.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 284,362 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 291 shares during the period. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury’s holdings in Fortis were worth $11,810,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 4,339,678 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $179,862,000 after acquiring an additional 125,447 shares during the last quarter. Natixis lifted its position in Fortis by 153.1% in the fourth quarter. Natixis now owns 12,930 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $538,000 after purchasing an additional 7,822 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia Trust Co. boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia Trust Co. now owns 382,098 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $15,884,000 after purchasing an additional 4,748 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Fortis by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 577,311 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $23,999,000 after purchasing an additional 28,642 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co raised its holdings in Fortis by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 584,173 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $24,217,000 after buying an additional 19,105 shares during the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of FTS stock opened at $48.31 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.63. Fortis Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $38.15 and a fifty-two week high of $48.94. The firm has a market cap of $24.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.47, a P/E/G ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.46. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $45.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $43.93.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. Fortis had a net margin of 14.12% and a return on equity of 7.09%. The business had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.08 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.72 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid a $0.4324 dividend. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.58%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. Fortis’s payout ratio is currently 72.03%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Fortis in a report on Thursday, February 13th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis presently has an average rating of “Hold”.

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.