Concorde Asset Management LLC Reduces Position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Concorde Asset Management LLC lowered its stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 50.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 29,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 29,000 shares during the period. Fortis accounts for 0.7% of Concorde Asset Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 24th biggest position. Concorde Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Fortis were worth $1,126,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 3,938,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $152,955,000 after acquiring an additional 158,178 shares during the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 10.8% in the 2nd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 858,512 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,380,000 after buying an additional 83,858 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 11.1% in the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 300,509 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,803,000 after buying an additional 30,103 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Fortis by 56.4% during 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. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in Fortis by 22.3% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 13,380,619 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $553,145,000 after acquiring an additional 2,438,223 shares during the period. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on FTS. StockNews.com raised shares of Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 4th. UBS Group upgraded Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th.

Fortis Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of Fortis stock opened at $44.90 on Thursday. Fortis Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.30 and a twelve month high of $45.83. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $42.90 and its 200 day moving average price is $40.64. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.23 billion, a PE ratio of 19.35, a P/E/G ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.47.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 7.04% and a net margin of 13.90%. The firm had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.96 billion. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 20th were issued a $0.431 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 20th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.84%. Fortis’s payout ratio is 73.28%.

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.