Barclays PLC Sells 16,471 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Barclays PLC trimmed its holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 83.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,210 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 16,471 shares during the quarter. Barclays PLC’s holdings in Fortis were worth $146,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of FTS. Natixis Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 56.4% in the second quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 48,399 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,880,000 after acquiring an additional 17,450 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Fortis in the second quarter worth approximately $948,000. Andra AP fonden bought a new stake in Fortis in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,169,000. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in Fortis by 6.6% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 87,075 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,384,000 after buying an additional 5,408 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 28.1% during the 2nd quarter. Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC now owns 10,695 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $415,000 after buying an additional 2,345 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on FTS shares. Bank of America initiated coverage on Fortis in a report on Friday, September 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating for the company. UBS Group upgraded Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Raymond James lowered shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th.

Fortis Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of Fortis stock opened at $41.82 on Wednesday. Fortis Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.86 and a 1-year high of $46.06. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $43.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $43.01. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $20.80 billion, a PE ratio of 17.57, a P/E/G ratio of 3.87 and a beta of 0.49.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its earnings results 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 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 in the previous year, the business earned $0.63 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.4382 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.19%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 76.47%.

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.