Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 22.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 13,669 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,525 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $562,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Fortis by 8.4% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,845,400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $70,107,000 after buying an additional 142,731 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 1.9% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,421,010 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $737,804,000 after purchasing an additional 353,112 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 32.4% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 158,635 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,027,000 after purchasing an additional 38,803 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 1.7% in the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,410,825 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $206,425,000 after purchasing an additional 90,274 shares during the period. Finally, Aviva PLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 8.6% in the third quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 658,009 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $25,078,000 after purchasing an additional 52,014 shares during the period. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortis has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $55.13.

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of FTS stock opened at $38.05 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $18.76 billion, a PE ratio of 16.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.42. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $39.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $39.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. Fortis Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.30 and a twelve month high of $46.28.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 7.00%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.53 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.61%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 76.09%.

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.