Truist Financial Corp Acquires 1,691 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Truist Financial Corp lifted its position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 6.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 28,689 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,691 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp’s holdings in Fortis were worth $1,114,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of FTS. Toronto Dominion Bank grew its position in shares of Fortis by 26.9% in the 2nd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 9,071,484 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $352,336,000 after buying an additional 1,920,728 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in Fortis by 44.6% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,653,873 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $109,154,000 after purchasing an additional 818,835 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its position in Fortis by 31.4% during the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,142,695 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,259,000 after purchasing an additional 512,103 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Fortis by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,842,130 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $816,107,000 after purchasing an additional 421,120 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc grew its position in Fortis by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 12,151,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $472,164,000 after purchasing an additional 270,417 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Stock Performance

FTS opened at $43.40 on Monday. 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 firm has a fifty day moving average price of $44.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.26. Fortis Inc. has a 1 year low of $36.86 and a 1 year high of $46.06. The stock has a market cap of $21.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.71, a P/E/G ratio of 3.83 and a beta of 0.47.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.02. The company 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 research analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th will be issued a $0.615 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $2.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.67%. This is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 78.02%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FTS has been the topic of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 4th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Fortis in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They set an “underperform” rating for the company.

Fortis 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.