Fortis $FTS Shares Bought by Aviso Financial Inc.

Aviso Financial Inc. grew its position in Fortis (NYSE:FTS) by 7.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 101,518 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,682 shares during the period. Aviso Financial Inc.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $4,846,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Fortis by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,025,514 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,099,399,000 after purchasing an additional 759,772 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 4.7% in the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 13,474,508 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $642,076,000 after buying an additional 603,772 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 5.9% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,224,022 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $296,614,000 after buying an additional 345,633 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Fortis by 18.6% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,414,298 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $262,828,000 after acquiring an additional 849,606 shares during the period. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its holdings in Fortis by 52.0% during the first quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 4,922,870 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $224,278,000 after acquiring an additional 1,683,377 shares during the period. 57.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTS has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Zacks Research lowered shares of Fortis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. TD Securities restated a “buy” rating on shares of Fortis in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. National Bankshares reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Fortis in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortis currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $72.00.

Fortis Trading Down 0.4%

Fortis stock opened at $51.38 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $50.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $49.31. Fortis has a 52 week low of $40.32 and a 52 week high of $52.83. The stock has a market cap of $25.97 billion, a PE ratio of 21.14, a P/E/G ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.61 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $2.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.22 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.24% and a net margin of 14.48%. Equities research analysts predict that Fortis will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.64 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 17th. This represents a $2.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.0%. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 75.83%.

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.