25,140 Shares in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Acquired by Aigen Investment Management LP

Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS - Free Report) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 25,140 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,142,000.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of FTS. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Fortis in the 1st quarter worth approximately $69,000. Cumberland Partners Ltd grew its stake in Fortis by 5.8% in the 1st quarter. Cumberland Partners Ltd now owns 31,200 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,234,000 after acquiring an additional 1,700 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Fortis in the 1st quarter valued at $523,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Fortis by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,072,102 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $793,049,000 after purchasing an additional 229,972 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Fortis by 36.1% during the 1st quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 15,688 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $620,000 after purchasing an additional 4,158 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company's stock.

Fortis Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE FTS traded down $0.25 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $44.00. 272,284 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 700,867. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $44.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $42.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.46, a PEG ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.69. Fortis Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.86 and a twelve month high of $46.06.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.01 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.06% and a return on equity of 7.03%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.63 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company 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 dividend of $0.615 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $2.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.59%. This is an increase from Fortis's previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Fortis's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 71.85%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on FTS. UBS Group upgraded shares of Fortis to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Raymond James downgraded shares of Fortis from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortis from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Sunday, August 4th. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on shares of Fortis in a report on Friday, September 20th. They issued an "underperform" rating for the company. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have given a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Reduce".

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.