JPMorgan Chase & Co. Grows Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 9.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,890,184 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 250,630 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned approximately 0.58% of Fortis worth $131,330,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BNP Paribas Financial Markets purchased a new stake in shares of Fortis in the third quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC raised its position in Fortis by 52.2% during the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,000 after acquiring an additional 630 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in Fortis during the third quarter valued at $149,000. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA acquired a new stake in shares of Fortis in the third quarter valued at about $209,000. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Fortis during the third quarter worth about $272,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FTS has been the topic of a number of research reports. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Fortis in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating on the stock. UBS Group upgraded Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Raymond James cut Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th.

Fortis Price Performance

FTS stock opened at $41.57 on Thursday. Fortis Inc. has a 1 year low of $36.86 and a 1 year high of $46.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.68 billion, a PE ratio of 17.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.93 and a beta of 0.49. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $42.89.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.26. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.01% and a net margin of 14.06%. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.01 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.63 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a $0.4382 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.22%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 76.05%.

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.