AlphaCore Capital LLC Takes $119,000 Position in Fortis $FTS

AlphaCore Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortis (NYSE:FTS) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 2,491 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $119,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTS. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Fortis by 218.6% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,648,592 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $166,303,000 after purchasing an additional 2,503,531 shares during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its stake 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 in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec acquired a new stake in Fortis in the first quarter valued at approximately $54,838,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fortis by 18.6% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,414,298 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $262,828,000 after buying an additional 849,606 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Fortis by 3.4% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,025,514 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,099,399,000 after buying an additional 759,772 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on FTS shares. TD Securities reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Fortis in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Fortis in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Scotiabank reissued a “sector perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a research note on Monday, October 6th. CIBC restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Fortis in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Fortis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortis presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $72.00.

Fortis Stock Performance

NYSE:FTS opened at $51.93 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $50.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $49.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.25 billion, a PE ratio of 21.37, a P/E/G ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.58. Fortis has a 52-week low of $40.32 and a 52-week high of $52.83.

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

Fortis Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 17th will be given a dividend of $0.64 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 17th. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. This represents a $2.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.9%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.