Sciencast Management LP Purchases Shares of 9,376 Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Sciencast Management LP purchased a new stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 9,376 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $390,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in shares of Fortis by 21.8% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 5,190,336 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $235,839,000 after acquiring an additional 930,331 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in shares of Fortis by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,126,939 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $142,172,000 after acquiring an additional 22,411 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Fortis by 9.5% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,890,184 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $131,330,000 after acquiring an additional 250,630 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fortis by 10.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,404,404 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $111,771,000 after acquiring an additional 223,733 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Fortis by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,402,045 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $58,230,000 after acquiring an additional 49,560 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Fortis in a report on Thursday, February 13th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Two 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, Fortis currently has an average rating of “Hold”.

Fortis Trading Down 0.5 %

Fortis stock opened at $45.00 on Friday. Fortis Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.86 and a 52 week high of $46.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.07, a PEG ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.48. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $43.56 and a 200 day simple moving average of $43.72.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 last year, the company posted $0.72 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.4324 per share. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.84%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. Fortis’s payout ratio is currently 72.03%.

Fortis 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.