Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Shares Sold by Federated Hermes Inc.

Federated Hermes Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 6.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 229,876 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 15,099 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $8,928,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of FTS. FIL Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 33.8% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 19,477,406 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $801,263,000 after acquiring an additional 4,924,031 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Fortis in the 4th quarter worth approximately $120,880,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC acquired a new position in Fortis in the 4th quarter worth approximately $119,043,000. TD Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in Fortis by 22.3% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 13,380,619 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $553,145,000 after buying an additional 2,438,223 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Fortis by 44.6% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,653,873 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $109,154,000 after buying an additional 818,835 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:FTS opened at $45.34 on Wednesday. Fortis Inc. has a 1 year low of $36.30 and a 1 year high of $45.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $42.79 and its 200-day moving average price is $40.61.

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

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 20th were given a dividend of $0.431 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 20th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.80%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 73.71%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FTS has been the topic of several research reports. UBS Group upgraded shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 4th.

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.