DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Boosts Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 41.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 424,992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 124,483 shares during the quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale owned about 0.09% of Fortis worth $16,503,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of FTS. FIL Ltd raised its position in shares of Fortis by 33.8% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 19,477,406 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $801,263,000 after buying an additional 4,924,031 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Fortis during the 4th quarter valued at $120,880,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortis during the 4th quarter valued at $119,043,000. TD Asset Management Inc raised its position in shares of Fortis by 22.3% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 13,380,619 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $553,145,000 after buying an additional 2,438,223 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Fortis by 44.6% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,653,873 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $109,154,000 after buying an additional 818,835 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on FTS shares. UBS Group upgraded shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 4th.

Fortis Price Performance

FTS stock opened at $45.49 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.69. Fortis Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.30 and a 52 week high of $45.57. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $42.54 and its 200 day moving average is $40.51. The firm has a market cap of $22.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.61, a P/E/G ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.47.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.02. Fortis had a net margin of 13.90% and a return on equity of 7.04%. The company had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.96 billion. Research analysts predict that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 20th were issued a $0.431 dividend. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 20th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 73.71%.

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.