Swiss National Bank Sells 40,700 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Swiss National Bank decreased its stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 2.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,581,882 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 40,700 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Fortis were worth $65,196,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Fortis by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,421,010 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $737,804,000 after acquiring an additional 353,112 shares in the last quarter. 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 worth $481,130,000 after purchasing an additional 1,294,939 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its holdings in Fortis by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 8,080,594 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $332,583,000 after purchasing an additional 561,176 shares in the last quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. raised its holdings in Fortis by 4.1% in the third quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 7,724,238 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $292,877,000 after purchasing an additional 306,228 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its position in Fortis by 5.0% during the third quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 7,026,899 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $266,901,000 after buying an additional 334,623 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Fortis Stock Up 0.3 %

FTS stock opened at $39.91 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $39.09 and a 200 day moving average of $39.94. The firm has a market cap of $19.68 billion, a PE ratio of 17.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.42. Fortis Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.30 and a twelve month high of $46.28. The company has a quick ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.39 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.02% and a net margin of 13.66%. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.53 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $0.4382 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.39%. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 55.17%.

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.