Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Shares Sold by Bank of Montreal Can

Bank of Montreal Can trimmed its stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 7.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 24,375,228 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 2,050,366 shares during the quarter. Bank of Montreal Can’s holdings in Fortis were worth $1,011,554,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTS. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Fortis by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,722,993 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $902,656,000 after acquiring an additional 364,391 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Fortis by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. now owns 12,266,121 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $509,425,000 after purchasing an additional 173,226 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Fortis during the 4th quarter valued at about $182,242,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortis by 77.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,257,486 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $180,686,000 after purchasing an additional 1,853,082 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 250,630 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Fortis in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

Fortis Stock Down 2.3 %

Shares of NYSE FTS opened at $46.24 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $44.32 and its 200 day moving average is $43.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.63. Fortis Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.86 and a 52 week high of $48.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.59, a PEG ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.46.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.09% and a net margin of 14.12%. The firm had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.08 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.72 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.4324 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.73 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.74%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is 72.03%.

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.