Toronto Dominion Bank Sells 3,465,763 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Toronto Dominion Bank lessened its holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 38.2% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 5,605,721 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 3,465,763 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank’s holdings in Fortis were worth $254,724,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Ridgewood Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Fortis during the 2nd quarter valued at $32,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets bought a new stake in shares of Fortis in the 3rd quarter worth about $44,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 52.2% during the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,000 after purchasing an additional 630 shares during the period. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Fortis during the 2nd quarter valued at about $80,000. Finally, CHICAGO TRUST Co NA purchased a new stake in Fortis in the 3rd quarter worth about $209,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE FTS opened at $43.61 on Wednesday. Fortis Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.86 and a twelve month high of $46.06. The firm has a market cap of $21.69 billion, a PE ratio of 18.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 0.49. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $44.27 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.64. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.01 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.06% and a return on equity of 7.01%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.63 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a $0.4382 dividend. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 76.47%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTS has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America initiated coverage on Fortis in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They set an “underperform” rating on the stock. Raymond James cut shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Reduce”.

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.