Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. Acquires 15,000 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. boosted its holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 60.0% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 40,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 15,000 shares during the period. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $1,818,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Fortis by 4.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 489,343 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $19,006,000 after purchasing an additional 21,059 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in Fortis by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 3,938,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $152,955,000 after acquiring an additional 158,178 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp raised its holdings in Fortis by 10.8% in the 2nd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 858,512 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,380,000 after acquiring an additional 83,858 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Fortis by 5.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,352,485 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $61,516,000 after acquiring an additional 73,682 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Intact Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 163.8% during the third quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 227,700 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $10,347,000 after acquiring an additional 141,400 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FTS has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America assumed coverage on Fortis in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They set an “underperform” rating on the stock. UBS Group upgraded Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Raymond James cut shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have given a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis presently has an average rating of “Reduce”.

Fortis Stock Up 0.4 %

NYSE FTS opened at $44.90 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The company has a market cap of $22.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.87, a PEG ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a 50 day moving average of $44.32 and a 200-day moving average of $42.56. Fortis Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.86 and a 1-year high of $46.06.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.26. The firm had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.01 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.01% and a net margin of 14.06%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.63 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th were paid a $0.615 dividend. This represents a $2.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.48%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 18th. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Fortis’s payout ratio is 76.47%.

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.