Fiera Capital Corp Sells 47,236 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Fiera Capital Corp trimmed its holdings in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS - Free Report) by 5.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 818,021 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 47,236 shares during the quarter. Fiera Capital Corp owned 0.16% of Fortis worth $33,954,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in Fortis by 9.1% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 149,151 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $6,194,000 after acquiring an additional 12,430 shares during the last quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. boosted its position in Fortis by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 89,681 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $3,728,000 after acquiring an additional 447 shares during the last quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Fortis by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,385 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $224,000 after acquiring an additional 698 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Fortis during the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. Finally, Clear Creek Financial Management LLC acquired a new position in Fortis during the 4th quarter worth approximately $203,000. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on FTS. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Fortis in a report on Thursday. They issued a "hold" rating for the company. Raymond James downgraded Fortis from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold".

Fortis Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE FTS traded up $0.49 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $44.81. The company had a trading volume of 7,646,555 shares, compared to its average volume of 389,661. The firm's 50 day moving average is $42.32 and its 200-day moving average is $43.54. Fortis Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.86 and a 1-year high of $46.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.01% and a net margin of 14.06%. The business had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.08 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.72 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.4324 per share. This represents a $1.73 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.86%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. Fortis's dividend payout ratio is 79.41%.

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.