Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Increases Stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc raised its holdings in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 14.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 65,651 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,300 shares during the quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc’s holdings in Fortis were worth $2,635,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FIL Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 33.8% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 19,477,406 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $801,263,000 after buying an additional 4,924,031 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Fortis by 44.6% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,653,873 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $109,154,000 after acquiring an additional 818,835 shares in the last quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 95.8% in the fourth quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp now owns 1,204,145 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $49,779,000 after acquiring an additional 589,117 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its position in shares of Fortis by 31.4% in the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,142,695 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $83,259,000 after purchasing an additional 512,103 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,842,130 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $816,107,000 after purchasing an additional 421,120 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on FTS. Bank of America started coverage on Fortis in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating for the company. StockNews.com raised shares of Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 4th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research note 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, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $61.00.

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FTS opened at $45.56 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.64, a P/E/G ratio of 3.99 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.49 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $40.86. Fortis Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.30 and a twelve month high of $45.83.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.02. Fortis had a net margin of 13.90% and a return on equity of 7.04%. The company had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.96 billion. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.615 per share. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $2.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. Fortis’s payout ratio is currently 73.28%.

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.