Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Acquires 3,971 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 2.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 151,213 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,971 shares during the quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC’s holdings in Fortis were worth $6,286,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 21.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 930,331 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in 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 buying an additional 22,411 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in 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 buying an additional 250,630 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in 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 buying an additional 223,733 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in 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 buying an additional 49,560 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Stock Performance

NYSE:FTS opened at $45.00 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.47 billion, a PE ratio of 19.07, a PEG ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.48. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $43.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $43.73. Fortis Inc. has a 1 year low of $36.86 and a 1 year high of $46.06.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.08 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.12% and a return on equity of 7.09%. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.72 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Fortis in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis presently has an average rating of “Hold”.

About Fortis

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.