Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Sells 462 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC reduced its holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 2.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 17,356 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 462 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Fortis were worth $789,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortis by 123.5% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 666 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 368 shares in the last quarter. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortis during the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Fortis by 53.6% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 346 shares in the last quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortis by 52.2% during the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $83,000 after purchasing an additional 630 shares in the last quarter. Finally, 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Fortis during the second quarter valued at approximately $80,000. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on FTS. Bank of America started coverage on Fortis in a research report on Friday, September 20th. They set an “underperform” rating on the stock. UBS Group raised Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. StockNews.com raised Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 4th. Finally, Raymond James downgraded Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce”.

Fortis Trading Down 0.2 %

Fortis stock opened at $44.17 on Monday. Fortis Inc. has a 12 month low of $36.86 and a 12 month high of $46.06. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $44.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $42.18. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The company has a market capitalization of $21.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.47.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly 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 7.03% and a net margin of 14.06%. The firm had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.63 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a $0.615 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $2.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.57%. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Fortis’s payout ratio is currently 71.85%.

Fortis 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.