Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Shares Sold by Nexus Investment Management ULC

Nexus Investment Management ULC lowered its position in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 26.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 61,765 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 22,000 shares during the period. Nexus Investment Management ULC’s holdings in Fortis were worth $2,561,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hennessy Advisors Inc. grew its position in Fortis by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 121,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,062,000 after acquiring an additional 3,700 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Fortis by 847.9% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 181,586 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,548,000 after purchasing an additional 162,430 shares during the period. Code Waechter LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fortis by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Code Waechter LLC now owns 18,708 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $778,000 after purchasing an additional 277 shares during the period. JCIC Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Fortis by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,087 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $211,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares during the last quarter. Finally, QV Investors Inc. raised its holdings in Fortis by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. QV Investors Inc. now owns 1,074,643 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $44,631,000 after buying an additional 60,380 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Raymond James lowered shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th.

Fortis Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE FTS opened at $41.98 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The business’s 50 day moving average is $42.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $43.11. Fortis Inc. has a 52-week low of $36.86 and a 52-week high of $46.06. The firm has a market cap of $20.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.64, a PEG ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 0.50.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.26. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.01% and a net margin of 14.06%. The firm had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.63 EPS. Research analysts predict that Fortis Inc. will post 2.3 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a $0.4382 dividend. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. Fortis’s payout ratio is 79.41%.

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.