FIL Ltd Has $886.64 Million Stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

FIL Ltd cut its stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS - Free Report) by 13.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 21,337,579 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 3,407,789 shares during the quarter. Fortis accounts for 0.8% of FIL Ltd's portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest holding. FIL Ltd owned 4.27% of Fortis worth $886,635,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Fortis by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,359,640 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $56,520,000 after purchasing an additional 61,525 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortis in the fourth quarter worth approximately $365,000. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 7.2% during 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 period. Aviva PLC lifted its position in shares of Fortis by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 986,837 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $40,923,000 after acquiring an additional 17,402 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ExodusPoint Capital Management LP boosted its stake in Fortis by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP now owns 10,500 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $436,000 after purchasing an additional 599 shares during the period. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Fortis in a report on Thursday, February 13th. They issued a "hold" rating for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis has a consensus rating of "Hold".

Fortis Stock Up 3.0 %

Shares of FTS stock traded up $1.34 during trading on Friday, hitting $46.59. 630,236 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 638,445. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $44.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $43.76. Fortis Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.86 and a twelve month high of $48.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.74, a P/E/G ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.63.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.08 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.72 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.4324 per share. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.71%. 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.