Wellington Management Group LLP Buys 6,779 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 18.3% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 43,854 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,779 shares during the quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP’s holdings in Fortis were worth $1,995,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Ridgewood Investments LLC acquired a new position in Fortis during the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets acquired a new position in shares of Fortis during the third quarter valued at about $44,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC raised its position in shares of Fortis by 52.2% in the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $83,000 after purchasing an additional 630 shares during the last quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Fortis in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $80,000. Finally, CHICAGO TRUST Co NA purchased a new stake in Fortis during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $209,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTS has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group upgraded shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Raymond James cut Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on Fortis in a report on Friday, September 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating on the stock.

Fortis Stock Down 2.1 %

FTS stock opened at $41.04 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $43.97 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.76. Fortis Inc. has a 12 month low of $36.86 and a 12 month high of $46.06. The company has a market capitalization of $20.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.93 and a beta of 0.49.

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

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a $0.4382 dividend. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.27%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. Fortis’s payout ratio is presently 76.05%.

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.