IFP Advisors Inc Sells 1,375 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

IFP Advisors Inc lessened its position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 37.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,263 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,375 shares during the quarter. IFP Advisors Inc’s holdings in Fortis were worth $94,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of FTS. US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in Fortis by 13.5% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 12,906 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $586,000 after acquiring an additional 1,532 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 136,721 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,134,000 after purchasing an additional 9,300 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 865,257 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $39,365,000 after purchasing an additional 6,745 shares during the period. Tacita Capital Inc increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 14.2% during the 3rd quarter. Tacita Capital Inc now owns 61,781 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,811,000 after purchasing an additional 7,674 shares during the period. Finally, Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 19.0% during the 3rd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 278,881 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,685,000 after purchasing an additional 44,495 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Stock Performance

NYSE:FTS opened at $44.36 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $42.79 and its 200-day moving average is $43.64. Fortis Inc. has a 52-week low of $36.86 and a 52-week high of $46.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.63. The company has a market cap of $22.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.80, a PEG ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.48.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. Fortis had a net margin of 14.12% and a return on equity of 7.09%. The business had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.08 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.72 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.4324 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.73 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.90%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 72.03%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Raymond James downgraded shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Fortis in a report on Thursday, February 13th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortis presently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

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.