Swiss National Bank Reduces Position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Swiss National Bank lowered its position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS - Free Report) by 3.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,437,582 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 53,300 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank owned about 0.29% of Fortis worth $59,706,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTS. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in Fortis by 21.8% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 5,190,336 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $235,839,000 after purchasing an additional 930,331 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its position in Fortis by 15.7% in the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 3,747,036 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $170,230,000 after buying an additional 507,068 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Europe London LLP boosted its stake in Fortis by 413.6% in the third quarter. Point72 Europe London LLP now owns 395,474 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $17,973,000 after buying an additional 318,474 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new stake in Fortis in the third quarter worth approximately $13,236,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Fortis by 9.5% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,890,184 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $131,330,000 after buying an additional 250,630 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company's stock.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on 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 assigned a hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold".

Fortis Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of Fortis stock traded down $0.02 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $45.18. 231,671 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 619,861. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.63. The company has a market cap of $22.56 billion, a PE ratio of 19.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.48. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $43.35 and a 200-day moving average of $43.70. Fortis Inc. has a 12 month low of $36.86 and a 12 month high of $46.06.

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

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid a $0.4324 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.83%. Fortis's dividend payout ratio is currently 72.03%.

Fortis 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.