Versor Investments LP Acquires 8,900 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Versor Investments LP boosted its stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS - Free Report) by 84.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,435 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 8,900 shares during the quarter. Versor Investments LP's holdings in Fortis were worth $807,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 5.8% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,352,485 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $61,516,000 after acquiring an additional 73,682 shares during the last quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 163.8% during the third quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 227,700 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $10,347,000 after buying an additional 141,400 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 11.3% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 153,325 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $6,974,000 after buying an additional 15,605 shares during the last quarter. Unigestion Holding SA acquired a new position in shares of Fortis during the third quarter worth $2,830,000. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $170,230,000 after acquiring an additional 507,068 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company's stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Raymond James cut Fortis from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Fortis in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. They issued a "hold" rating for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold".

Fortis Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE FTS traded up $0.28 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $44.43. 352,386 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 569,165. The stock has a market cap of $22.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.87, a P/E/G ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.63. Fortis Inc. has a one year low of $36.86 and a one year high of $46.06. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.69 and a 200-day simple moving average of $43.63.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. Fortis had a net margin of 14.12% and a return on equity of 7.09%. The firm had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.08 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.72 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 EPS for the current 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 issued a $0.4324 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.89%. Fortis's dividend payout ratio is presently 71.61%.

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.