Partners Group Holding AG Decreases Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Partners Group Holding AG decreased its stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS - Free Report) by 97.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 12,364 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 407,402 shares during the quarter. Partners Group Holding AG's holdings in Fortis were worth $558,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 123.5% in the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 666 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 368 shares in the last quarter. Ridgewood Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Fortis during the 2nd quarter valued at $32,000. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 53.6% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 992 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 346 shares in the last quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 52.2% during the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $83,000 after buying an additional 630 shares in the last quarter. Finally, 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Fortis in the second quarter valued at about $80,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Fortis Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of Fortis stock traded down $0.45 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $44.58. 482,654 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 717,059. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $44.37 and a 200 day simple moving average of $42.37. Fortis Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.86 and a twelve month high of $46.06. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26.

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

Fortis Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.615 per share. This represents a $2.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. This is a positive change from Fortis's previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Fortis's payout ratio is currently 76.47%.

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.