Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY Trims Stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY reduced its holdings in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 77.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,743 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 64,511 shares during the period. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY’s holdings in Fortis were worth $741,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FIL Ltd boosted its position in shares of Fortis by 33.8% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 19,477,406 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $801,263,000 after purchasing an additional 4,924,031 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Fortis in the fourth quarter worth approximately $120,880,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortis in the fourth quarter worth approximately $119,043,000. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Fortis by 22.3% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 13,380,619 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $553,145,000 after purchasing an additional 2,438,223 shares during the period. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its position in shares of Fortis by 11.4% during the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 12,664,645 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $481,130,000 after acquiring an additional 1,294,939 shares during the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortis Stock Performance

FTS opened at $39.39 on Tuesday. Fortis Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.30 and a fifty-two week high of $43.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.98, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a fifty day moving average of $39.63 and a 200 day moving average of $39.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 0.60.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.04. Fortis had a net margin of 13.66% and a return on equity of 7.02%. The business had revenue of $2.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.43 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com cut shares of Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortis currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.13.

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.