Raymond James Financial Inc. Makes New $1.75 Million Investment in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 42,122 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,751,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position 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 acquired a new position in shares of Fortis during the fourth quarter valued at $38,000. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in Fortis by 34.1% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,006 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 256 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets acquired a new stake in Fortis during the 3rd quarter worth $44,000. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in Fortis in the third quarter valued at about $149,000. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of FTS opened at $45.57 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $43.99 and a 200-day moving average of $43.71. 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 $46.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.31, a P/E/G 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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $2.08 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.72 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a $0.4324 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.80%. Fortis’s payout ratio is 72.03%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group started 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 issued a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortis has an average 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.