Aigen Investment Management LP Decreases Position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Aigen Investment Management LP decreased its holdings in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 2.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 24,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 574 shares during the quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP’s holdings in Fortis were worth $1,021,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTS. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in Fortis by 13.5% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 12,906 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $586,000 after purchasing an additional 1,532 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in Fortis by 7.3% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 136,721 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,134,000 after purchasing an additional 9,300 shares during the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp lifted its stake in Fortis by 0.8% during the third quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 865,257 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $39,365,000 after purchasing an additional 6,745 shares during the last quarter. Tacita Capital Inc lifted its stake in Fortis by 14.2% during the third quarter. Tacita Capital Inc now owns 61,781 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,811,000 after purchasing an additional 7,674 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its stake in Fortis by 19.0% during the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 278,881 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,685,000 after purchasing an additional 44,495 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Price Performance

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

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

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 3.90%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 72.03%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Raymond James cut Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Fortis in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

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.