Concorde Asset Management LLC Trims Position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Concorde Asset Management LLC cut its position in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 50.0% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 29,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 29,000 shares during the quarter. Fortis makes up approximately 0.7% of Concorde Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest position. Concorde Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Fortis were worth $1,126,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in FTS. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 12.5% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 490,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $20,185,000 after buying an additional 54,417 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Fortis during the 4th quarter worth about $120,880,000. UBS Group AG raised its holdings in Fortis by 16.0% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 194,666 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,007,000 after acquiring an additional 26,860 shares in the last quarter. Trexquant Investment LP raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 269.3% in the 4th quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 53,116 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,185,000 after purchasing an additional 38,732 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Neuberger Berman Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 17.8% in the 4th quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 43,526 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,799,000 after acquiring an additional 6,569 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Fortis Stock Down 1.0 %

FTS stock opened at $44.90 on Thursday. Fortis Inc. has a 12 month low of $36.30 and a 12 month high of $45.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The company has a market cap of $22.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $42.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.64.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released 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 firm had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.96 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.04% and a net margin of 13.90%. Sell-side analysts expect 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. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 20th were issued a $0.431 dividend. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 20th. Fortis’s payout ratio is currently 73.28%.

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.