Bank of Nova Scotia decreased its position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS - Free Report) by 21.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,496,859 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 1,825,297 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia owned approximately 1.30% of Fortis worth $269,915,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Fortis during the 4th quarter worth approximately $182,242,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position 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 acquiring an additional 1,853,082 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Fortis by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,722,993 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $902,656,000 after acquiring an additional 364,391 shares in the last quarter. Mufg Securities Canada LTD. grew its holdings in Fortis by 72.8% in the fourth quarter. Mufg Securities Canada LTD. now owns 759,384 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $31,534,000 after purchasing an additional 319,884 shares during the period. Finally, Guardian Partners Inc. bought a new stake in Fortis in the fourth quarter valued at $12,238,000. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company's stock.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
Separately, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Fortis in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. They set a "hold" rating on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold".
Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on FTS
Fortis Stock Up 3.0 %
Shares of NYSE:FTS traded up $1.34 during trading on Friday, reaching $46.59. 630,236 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 638,445. Fortis Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.86 and a 1-year high of $48.07. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $44.64 and a two-hundred day moving average of $43.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The firm has a market cap of $23.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.46.
Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.08 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.12% and a return on equity of 7.09%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.72 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Fortis Cuts Dividend
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.4324 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.71%. Fortis's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 72.03%.
About Fortis
(
Free Report)
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.
Further Reading
Before you consider Fortis, you'll want to hear this.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Fortis wasn't on the list.
While Fortis currently has a Reduce rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.
View The Five Stocks Here
If a company's CEO, COO, and CFO were all selling shares of their stock, would you want to know? MarketBeat just compiled its list of the twelve stocks that corporate insiders are abandoning. Complete the form below to see which companies made the list.
Get This Free Report
Like this article? Share it with a colleague.
Link copied to clipboard.
