Lindbrook Capital LLC Boosts Stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Lindbrook Capital LLC grew its stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 111.2% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 2,598 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,368 shares during the quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC’s holdings in Fortis were worth $107,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Toronto Dominion Bank grew its stake in Fortis by 11.4% in the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 12,664,645 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $481,130,000 after purchasing an additional 1,294,939 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 8,080,594 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $332,583,000 after buying an additional 561,176 shares in the last quarter. Guardian Capital LP grew its position in shares of Fortis by 61.8% in the 3rd quarter. Guardian Capital LP now owns 1,304,474 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $49,776,000 after buying an additional 498,210 shares during the last quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 59.7% during the 3rd quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,218,177 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $46,483,000 after acquiring an additional 455,435 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd lifted its position in Fortis by 5,208.4% during the third quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 440,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,848,000 after acquiring an additional 432,300 shares during the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of Fortis stock opened at $39.16 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $39.09 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.03, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. Fortis Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.30 and a 52 week 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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.12 billion during 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 quarter last year, the company posted $0.53 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.39 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.4382 per share. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.48%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. Fortis’s payout ratio is presently 55.22%.

Fortis 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.