Fiera Capital Corp Reduces Position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Fiera Capital Corp lessened its stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 5.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 818,021 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 47,236 shares during the quarter. Fiera Capital Corp owned approximately 0.16% of Fortis worth $33,954,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Creative Planning lifted its stake in Fortis by 21.1% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 52,266 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,375,000 after acquiring an additional 9,108 shares during the period. Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Fortis by 9.2% in the third quarter. Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC now owns 16,094 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $731,000 after acquiring an additional 1,356 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC lifted its stake in Fortis by 14.4% in the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 26,094 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,186,000 after acquiring an additional 3,277 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Fortis by 42.6% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 19,156 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $871,000 after acquiring an additional 5,723 shares during the period. Finally, Cromwell Holdings LLC lifted its stake in Fortis by 52.2% in the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,000 after acquiring an additional 630 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Price Performance

FTS opened at $44.34 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $43.48. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The company has a market cap of $22.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.50. Fortis Inc. has a 12-month low of $36.86 and a 12-month high of $46.06.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a $0.4382 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.95%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 79.41%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on FTS. Raymond James lowered Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Fortis in a report on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

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.