John G Ullman & Associates Inc. Has $251,000 Stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

John G Ullman & Associates Inc. decreased its holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 73.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 6,100 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 17,300 shares during the period. John G Ullman & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $251,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in FTS. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 22.4% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 24,569 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,215,000 after purchasing an additional 4,500 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 9.9% in the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,569 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $177,000 after buying an additional 322 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 9.1% in the 1st quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 26,923 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,333,000 after buying an additional 2,249 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 45.3% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 510,446 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $25,266,000 after buying an additional 159,068 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 32.5% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 212,935 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $10,540,000 after buying an additional 52,248 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com cut Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Two equities 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.13.

Fortis Stock Up 1.1 %

FTS opened at $38.47 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. The business has a 50 day moving average of $39.08 and a 200-day moving average of $39.94. Fortis Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.30 and a 1-year high of $46.28.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.39 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.00% and a net margin of 13.22%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.53 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate 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 $0.4382 dividend. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 55.65%.

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.