Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Shares Bought by Jones Financial Companies Lllp

Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 17.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 73,385 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 10,913 shares during the quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp’s holdings in Fortis were worth $3,051,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Fortis by 724.3% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 577 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 507 shares during the period. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Fortis during the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in Fortis by 34.1% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,006 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 256 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets purchased a new stake in shares of Fortis in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in shares of Fortis during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $149,000. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FTS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Fortis in a report on Thursday, February 13th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Raymond James downgraded Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis has an average rating of “Hold”.

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of FTS opened at $44.36 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.79 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $43.64. The stock has a market cap of $22.15 billion, a PE ratio of 18.80, a P/E/G ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.48. Fortis Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.86 and a 1-year high of $46.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.63.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.08 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.12% and a return on equity of 7.09%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.72 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 EPS 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 issued a $0.4324 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.73 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.90%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is presently 72.03%.

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.