BNP Paribas Financial Markets Makes New $44,000 Investment in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

BNP Paribas Financial Markets acquired a new stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 976 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $44,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of FTS. Ridgewood Investments LLC acquired a new position in Fortis during the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 52.2% in 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 in the last quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA acquired a new position in Fortis during the third quarter worth $209,000. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its position in Fortis by 13.1% during the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 7,865 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $357,000 after acquiring an additional 910 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV lifted its stake in Fortis by 58.3% in the third quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 8,457 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $384,000 after acquiring an additional 3,115 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of FTS stock opened at $41.16 on Friday. Fortis Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.86 and a 52 week high of $46.06. The company has a market capitalization of $20.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.29, a PEG ratio of 3.93 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $43.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $42.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.74.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.26. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.01% and a net margin of 14.06%. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.63 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a $0.4382 dividend. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.26%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is 76.05%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group raised shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Bank of America initiated coverage on Fortis in a research report on Friday, September 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating for the company. Finally, Raymond James downgraded Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th.

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.