Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. Buys 1,895 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 18.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,193 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,895 shares during the quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $525,000 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. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise bought a new stake in shares of Fortis in the first quarter worth about $25,000. Power Corp of Canada purchased a new position in shares of Fortis during the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Fifth Third Bancorp purchased a new position in shares of Fortis during the first quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Macquarie Group Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Fortis during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $61,000. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortis during the first quarter valued at approximately $69,000. 50.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FTS has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Bank of America reduced their target price on Fortis from $38.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $61.00 target price on shares of Fortis in a report on Thursday, September 28th. StockNews.com downgraded Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday. Credit Suisse Group decreased their price target on Fortis from $61.50 to $60.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 24th. Finally, Raymond James decreased their price target on Fortis from $65.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.93.

Fortis Stock Down 1.0 %

Fortis stock opened at $39.73 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $19.41 billion, a PE ratio of 17.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.79. Fortis Inc. has a one year low of $36.30 and a one year high of $46.28. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $39.56 and a 200 day moving average of $41.64.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 2nd. The utilities provider reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46. The business had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.99 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 6.99% and a net margin of 12.81%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.44 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Fortis Inc. will post 2.24 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 17th will be paid a $0.437 dividend. This is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 16th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.40%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is 72.93%.

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 443,000 retail customers in southeastern Arizona; and 102,000 retail customers in Arizona's Mohave and Santa Cruz counties with an aggregate capacity of 3,328 megawatts (MW), including 68 MW of solar capacity and 250 MV of wind capacity.