Cerity Partners LLC Invests $365,000 in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Cerity Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 8,697 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $365,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quadrant Capital Group LLC increased its stake in Fortis by 7.2% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 4,302 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $179,000 after acquiring an additional 289 shares during the last quarter. Aviva PLC increased its position in shares of Fortis by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 986,837 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $40,923,000 after purchasing an additional 17,402 shares during the last quarter. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 6.0% during the 4th quarter. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP now owns 10,500 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $436,000 after buying an additional 599 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 77.1% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,257,486 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $180,686,000 after buying an additional 1,853,082 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in Fortis by 15.3% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 305,713 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $12,687,000 after buying an additional 40,580 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Fortis in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. They set a "hold" rating on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold".

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of Fortis stock opened at $48.92 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $45.22 and a 200 day moving average of $43.90. Fortis Inc. has a 52 week low of $38.15 and a 52 week high of $48.94. The company has a market cap of $24.54 billion, a PE ratio of 20.73, a P/E/G ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. Fortis had a net margin of 14.12% and a return on equity of 7.09%. The business had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.08 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.72 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.4324 per share. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.54%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. Fortis's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 72.03%.

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.

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