Point72 Europe London LLP Takes $2.99 Million Position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Point72 Europe London LLP purchased a new position in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 77,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,991,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. FIL Ltd boosted its stake in Fortis by 33.8% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 19,477,406 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $801,263,000 after buying an additional 4,924,031 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 22.3% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 13,380,619 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $553,145,000 after acquiring an additional 2,438,223 shares during the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its position in shares of Fortis by 26.9% during the 2nd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 9,071,484 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $352,336,000 after purchasing an additional 1,920,728 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Fortis by 44.6% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,653,873 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $109,154,000 after purchasing an additional 818,835 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alberta Investment Management Corp raised its position in Fortis by 95.8% in the fourth quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp now owns 1,204,145 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $49,779,000 after purchasing an additional 589,117 shares during the period. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortis Stock Up 0.3 %

Fortis stock opened at $45.15 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.46, a P/E/G ratio of 3.99 and a beta of 0.47. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $43.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $40.80. Fortis Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.30 and a twelve month high of $45.83. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.96 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.04% and a net margin of 13.90%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 20th were issued a $0.431 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 20th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.82%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 73.71%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FTS has been the subject of a number of research reports. Bank of America began coverage on Fortis in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating for the company. StockNews.com raised Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 4th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortis presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $61.00.

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.