Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC Has $35.33 Million Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC decreased its position in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS - Free Report) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 849,953 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 16,214 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC owned 0.17% of Fortis worth $35,333,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in shares of Fortis in the third quarter valued at about $149,000. DGS Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 55.1% during the third quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 20,069 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $912,000 after buying an additional 7,130 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Fortis by 9.5% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,890,184 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $131,330,000 after purchasing an additional 250,630 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in Fortis by 34.1% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,006 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 256 shares in the last quarter. Finally, QV Investors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. QV Investors Inc. now owns 1,074,643 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $44,631,000 after purchasing an additional 60,380 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Fortis in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. They set a "hold" rating on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortis currently has an average rating of "Hold".

Fortis Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of FTS traded up $0.04 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $48.59. The stock had a trading volume of 409,195 shares, compared to its average volume of 629,037. The company has a market cap of $24.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.59, 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. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $45.37 and a 200 day moving average of $43.96. Fortis Inc. has a 52 week low of $38.15 and a 52 week high of $48.94.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.08 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.12% and a return on equity of 7.09%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.72 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a $0.4324 dividend. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. Fortis's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.