Swiss National Bank Grows Stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Swiss National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS - Free Report) by 0.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,490,882 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 11,500 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank owned approximately 0.30% of Fortis worth $67,848,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of FTS. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 11.9% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 54,149 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $2,461,000 after buying an additional 5,750 shares in the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Fortis during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,142,000. Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its position in shares of Fortis by 19.0% in the 3rd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 278,881 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $12,685,000 after acquiring an additional 44,495 shares during the period. Tacita Capital Inc grew its holdings in shares of Fortis by 14.2% during the 3rd quarter. Tacita Capital Inc now owns 61,781 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $2,811,000 after purchasing an additional 7,674 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fiera Capital Corp lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 0.8% in the third quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 865,257 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $39,365,000 after buying an additional 6,745 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FTS has been the topic of several research reports. StockNews.com upgraded Fortis from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Sunday, August 4th. Bank of America initiated coverage on Fortis in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They set an "underperform" rating for the company. Raymond James downgraded Fortis from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Fortis to a "strong sell" rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis currently has a consensus rating of "Reduce".

Fortis Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of Fortis stock traded down $0.05 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $44.70. The company's stock had a trading volume of 214,106 shares, compared to its average volume of 719,440. Fortis Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.86 and a 52 week high of $46.06. The stock has a market cap of $22.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $44.40 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $42.24.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.26. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.01 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.06% and a return on equity of 7.03%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.63 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.615 per share. This represents a $2.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. This is a boost from Fortis's previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Fortis's dividend payout ratio is 71.85%.

Fortis Company Profile

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.