Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC Has $34.65 Million Stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 1.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 892,154 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 16,956 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC owned 0.18% of Fortis worth $34,651,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in FTS. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Fortis by 12.5% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 490,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $20,185,000 after purchasing an additional 54,417 shares during the period. UBS Group AG grew its position in shares of Fortis by 16.0% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 194,666 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,007,000 after buying an additional 26,860 shares during the period. Trexquant Investment LP increased its stake in shares of Fortis by 269.3% in the 4th quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 53,116 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,185,000 after acquiring an additional 38,732 shares in the last quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Fortis by 17.8% during the 4th quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 43,526 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,799,000 after acquiring an additional 6,569 shares during the period. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its stake in Fortis by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 229,196 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,426,000 after acquiring an additional 13,811 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on FTS. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Fortis in a research note on Friday. They issued an “underperform” rating for the company. UBS Group raised Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 4th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have issued a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $61.00.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of FTS stock opened at $44.68 on Friday. 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 fifty day simple moving average of $43.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $40.72. Fortis Inc. has a 12 month low of $36.30 and a 12 month high of $45.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.13 billion, a PE ratio of 19.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.47.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.96 billion. Analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 3.86%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is presently 73.28%.

Fortis Company Profile

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.