Aigen Investment Management LP Trims Stock Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Aigen Investment Management LP reduced its stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 2.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 24,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 574 shares during the period. Aigen Investment Management LP’s holdings in Fortis were worth $1,021,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of FTS. US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in Fortis by 13.5% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 12,906 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $586,000 after buying an additional 1,532 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in Fortis by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 136,721 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,134,000 after acquiring an additional 9,300 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp grew its position in Fortis by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 865,257 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $39,365,000 after acquiring an additional 6,745 shares in the last quarter. Tacita Capital Inc grew its position in Fortis by 14.2% in the 3rd quarter. Tacita Capital Inc now owns 61,781 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,811,000 after acquiring an additional 7,674 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its position in Fortis by 19.0% in the 3rd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 278,881 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,685,000 after acquiring an additional 44,495 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FTS has been the subject of several research reports. Raymond James downgraded Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Fortis in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

Fortis Stock Performance

NYSE FTS opened at $44.36 on Thursday. Fortis Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.86 and a 1-year high of $46.06. The company has a market cap of $22.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.80, a P/E/G ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $42.79 and a two-hundred day moving average of $43.64.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.09% and a net margin of 14.12%. The business 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 company posted $0.72 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 3.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.