Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Stock Holdings Increased by BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp

BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp grew its position in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 131.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 159,276 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 90,348 shares during the period. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings in Fortis were worth $7,236,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Fortis by 123.5% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 666 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 368 shares in the last quarter. Ridgewood Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortis during the second quarter worth $32,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets bought a new position in shares of Fortis in the 3rd quarter worth about $44,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 52.2% in the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $83,000 after buying an additional 630 shares during the period. Finally, 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Fortis during the 2nd quarter valued at about $80,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of FTS stock opened at $44.68 on Monday. Fortis Inc. has a 12-month low of $36.86 and a 12-month high of $46.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.08 and a beta of 0.47. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $44.36 and a 200 day simple moving average of $42.48.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.26. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.03% and a net margin of 14.06%. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.01 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.63 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th were paid a dividend of $0.615 per share. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 18th. This represents a $2.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.51%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 76.47%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on FTS shares. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Fortis in a report on Friday, September 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 4th. UBS Group upgraded Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Raymond James lowered shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortis has a consensus rating of “Reduce”.

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.