Bank of New York Mellon Corp Purchases 36,587 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 7.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 533,741 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 36,587 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned 0.11% of Fortis worth $22,188,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of FTS. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in Fortis by 724.3% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 577 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 507 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortis in the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets acquired a new position in shares of Fortis during the third quarter worth about $44,000. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Fortis by 34.1% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,006 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 256 shares during the period. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in Fortis during the third quarter valued at approximately $149,000. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Fortis in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

Fortis Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE FTS opened at $44.92 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30. Fortis Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.86 and a twelve month high of $46.06. The company has a market cap of $22.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.48. The business’s fifty day moving average is $42.95 and its 200 day moving average is $43.66.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.09% and a net margin of 14.12%. The firm had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.08 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.72 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.4324 per share. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.85%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 72.03%.

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.