Acadian Asset Management LLC Purchases New Position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 24,420 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $948,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in FTS. Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. raised its stake in Fortis by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. now owns 220,928 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,585,000 after purchasing an additional 5,000 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 2.3% in the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 12,151,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $472,164,000 after buying an additional 270,417 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp boosted its position in Fortis by 10.8% during the second quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 858,512 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $33,380,000 after acquiring an additional 83,858 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 3,938,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $152,955,000 after purchasing an additional 158,178 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Fortis by 56.4% in the 2nd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 48,399 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,880,000 after buying an additional 17,450 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE FTS opened at $45.65 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $40.56. The company has a market capitalization of $22.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.68, a P/E/G ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.58. Fortis Inc. has a 1 year low of $36.30 and a 1 year high of $45.79.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.96 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 13.90% and a return on equity of 7.04%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 20th were issued a $0.431 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 20th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.78%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 73.71%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on FTS. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 4th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th.

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.