Mackenzie Financial Corp Raises Stock Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 7.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,080,594 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 561,176 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp owned about 1.65% of Fortis worth $332,583,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of FTS. Stifel Financial Corp boosted its holdings in Fortis by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 28,674 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,220,000 after buying an additional 242 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its position in Fortis by 2.4% in the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 10,638 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $404,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 1.5% in the third quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 17,463 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $663,000 after acquiring an additional 265 shares in the last quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 109,817 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,517,000 after acquiring an additional 313 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 9.9% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,569 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $177,000 after acquiring an additional 322 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Stock Performance

NYSE FTS traded down $0.20 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $37.42. 212,399 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 841,061. The company has a market cap of $18.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.42. Fortis Inc. has a 12-month low of $36.30 and a 12-month high of $46.28. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $39.23 and a 200 day moving average of $39.97. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.39 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 7.00%. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.53 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 2.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $0.4382 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.68%. This is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 76.09%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.13.

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.