Hsbc Holdings PLC Has $6.76 Million Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Hsbc Holdings PLC decreased its stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 39.0% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 174,087 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 111,079 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC’s holdings in Fortis were worth $6,755,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 54,417 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG lifted its holdings in Fortis by 16.0% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 194,666 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,007,000 after purchasing an additional 26,860 shares during the last quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC boosted its position in Fortis by 17.8% in the fourth quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 43,526 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,799,000 after buying an additional 6,569 shares in the last quarter. JARISLOWSKY FRASER Ltd grew its stake in Fortis by 30.7% during the fourth quarter. JARISLOWSKY FRASER Ltd now owns 40,604 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,678,000 after buying an additional 9,532 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 22.3% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 13,380,619 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $553,145,000 after buying an additional 2,438,223 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of Fortis stock opened at $45.01 on Tuesday. 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 50 day simple moving average of $43.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $40.76. Fortis Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.30 and a fifty-two week high of $45.83. The firm has a market cap of $22.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.40, a P/E/G ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.47.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 return on equity of 7.04% and a net margin of 13.90%. Sell-side analysts predict that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 3.83%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 73.28%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.