Raymond James Financial Inc. Buys Shares of 42,122 Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 42,122 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,751,000.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in Fortis by 724.3% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 577 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 507 shares during the period. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortis in the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets acquired a new position in shares of Fortis in the third quarter valued at about $44,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in Fortis by 34.1% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,006 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 256 shares during the period. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in Fortis in the 3rd quarter worth about $149,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company's stock.

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of FTS stock traded down $1.09 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $46.24. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,403,897 shares, compared to its average volume of 628,375. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30. Fortis Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.86 and a fifty-two week high of $48.07. The company has a market capitalization of $23.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.59, a PEG ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.46. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $44.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $43.75.

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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, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.08 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.09% and a net margin of 14.12%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.72 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.4324 per share. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. Fortis's dividend payout ratio is 72.03%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Fortis in a research 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 company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortis currently has an average rating of "Hold".

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.