Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Sells 1,824 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC reduced its holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 17.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 8,716 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,824 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Fortis were worth $339,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Intact Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Fortis by 155.3% during the 2nd quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 86,300 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,354,000 after purchasing an additional 52,500 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System increased its position in Fortis by 1.6% during the second quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 599,339 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $23,296,000 after acquiring an additional 9,292 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC raised its stake in Fortis by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 22,817 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $886,000 after purchasing an additional 679 shares during the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. boosted its holdings in Fortis by 12.9% in the 2nd quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 23,791 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $924,000 after purchasing an additional 2,726 shares during the period. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its holdings in Fortis by 14.8% in the 2nd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 114,854 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,463,000 after purchasing an additional 14,843 shares during the period. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FTS has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Fortis in a research report on Friday. They set an “underperform” rating for the company. UBS Group raised Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have issued a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $61.00.

Fortis Stock Performance

NYSE FTS opened at $45.01 on Tuesday. Fortis Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.30 and a twelve month high of $45.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The stock has a market cap of $22.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.40, a PEG ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.47. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.76.

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

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 20th were given 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 3.83%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is 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.