Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 3.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 17,887 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 531 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Fortis were worth $744,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of FTS. BNP Paribas Financial Markets bought a new position in Fortis in the third quarter worth approximately $44,000. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in shares of Fortis by 34.1% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,006 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 256 shares in the last quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 52.2% during the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,000 after purchasing an additional 630 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in shares of Fortis during the 3rd quarter worth $149,000. Finally, CHICAGO TRUST Co NA bought a new stake in Fortis during the third quarter valued at about $209,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Raymond James lowered shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th.

Fortis Price Performance

NYSE FTS opened at $43.52 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $42.39 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $43.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. Fortis Inc. has a 12-month low of $36.86 and a 12-month high of $46.06.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.26. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.01% and a net margin of 14.06%. The firm had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.01 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.63 EPS. Analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 2.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.4382 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.03%. Fortis’s payout ratio is 79.41%.

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.