Versor Investments LP Acquires 8,900 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Versor Investments LP lifted its holdings in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 84.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 19,435 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,900 shares during the period. Versor Investments LP’s holdings in Fortis were worth $807,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Fortis by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,352,485 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $61,516,000 after purchasing an additional 73,682 shares in the last quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Fortis by 163.8% in the 3rd quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 227,700 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $10,347,000 after acquiring an additional 141,400 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. increased its position in Fortis by 11.3% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 153,325 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,974,000 after acquiring an additional 15,605 shares in the last quarter. Unigestion Holding SA acquired a new stake in Fortis in the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,830,000. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its position in Fortis by 15.7% in the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 3,747,036 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $170,230,000 after acquiring an additional 507,068 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on FTS shares. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Fortis in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Raymond James cut shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

Fortis Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:FTS opened at $43.83 on Friday. Fortis Inc. has a one year low of $36.86 and a one year high of $46.06. The company has a 50 day moving average of $42.65 and a 200-day moving average of $43.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The stock has a market cap of $21.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.57, a P/E/G ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.50.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. Fortis had a net margin of 14.12% and a return on equity of 7.09%. The business had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.08 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.72 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.4324 per share. This represents a $1.73 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.95%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. Fortis’s payout ratio is 71.61%.

Fortis Company Profile

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.