Acadian Asset Management LLC Buys New Stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 24,420 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $948,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. increased its holdings 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 boosted its position in Fortis by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 12,151,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $472,164,000 after buying an additional 270,417 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp boosted its position in Fortis by 10.8% in the 2nd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 858,512 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,380,000 after buying an additional 83,858 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its position in Fortis by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 3,938,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $152,955,000 after buying an additional 158,178 shares during the period. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its position 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 4th. UBS Group raised shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th.

Fortis Price Performance

Fortis stock opened at $45.65 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $22.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $40.56. Fortis Inc. has a 12-month low of $36.30 and a 12-month high of $45.79. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26.

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

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 20th were given a dividend of $0.431 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 20th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.78%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 73.71%.

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.