Versor Investments LP Lowers Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Versor Investments LP lowered its stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 15.3% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 10,535 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,900 shares during the quarter. Versor Investments LP’s holdings in Fortis were worth $479,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its stake in Fortis by 53.6% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 346 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Fortis by 123.5% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 666 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 368 shares in the last quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 0.5% in the second quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 83,765 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,253,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Addison Capital Co lifted its position in shares of Fortis by 1.1% in the second quarter. Addison Capital Co now owns 39,391 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,530,000 after buying an additional 419 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cromwell Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Fortis by 52.2% during the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $83,000 after buying an additional 630 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE FTS opened at $44.29 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $22.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.61, a PEG ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.47. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $44.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.09. Fortis Inc. has a 1 year low of $36.86 and a 1 year high of $46.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.58.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.01 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.03% and a net margin of 14.06%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.63 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders 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 is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $2.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.55%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is presently 76.05%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FTS has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Fortis in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They set an “underperform” rating on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 4th. UBS Group raised Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Raymond James cut Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce”.

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.