Baillie Gifford & Co. Lowers Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Baillie Gifford & Co. reduced its holdings in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 13.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 242,583 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 36,298 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $10,075,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in shares of Fortis by 21.8% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 5,190,336 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $235,839,000 after acquiring an additional 930,331 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its stake in Fortis by 15.7% during the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 3,747,036 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $170,230,000 after purchasing an additional 507,068 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in Fortis by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,126,939 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $142,172,000 after purchasing an additional 22,411 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Fortis by 9.5% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,890,184 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $131,330,000 after purchasing an additional 250,630 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 10.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,404,404 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $111,771,000 after buying an additional 223,733 shares during the period. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on FTS shares. Raymond James lowered shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Fortis in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis presently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

Fortis Trading Up 1.1 %

NYSE:FTS opened at $44.81 on Tuesday. Fortis Inc. has a 1 year low of $36.86 and a 1 year high of $46.06. The stock has a market cap of $22.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.74. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $43.54.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.01% and a net margin of 14.06%. 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 prior year, the company posted $0.72 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a $0.4324 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.86%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 79.41%.

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.