Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. Acquires 447 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 0.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 89,681 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 447 shares during the quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $3,728,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in Fortis by 724.3% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 577 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 507 shares during the period. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Fortis during the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets purchased a new stake in Fortis during the 3rd quarter valued at $44,000. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in Fortis by 34.1% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,006 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 256 shares during the period. Finally, Cromwell Holdings LLC increased its position in shares of Fortis by 52.2% in the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $83,000 after acquiring an additional 630 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Raymond James lowered shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th.

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of Fortis stock opened at $43.52 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $42.37 and a 200 day moving average of $43.40. Fortis Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.86 and a 52 week high of $46.06. The company has a market cap of $21.73 billion, a PE ratio of 18.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.4382 per share. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. Fortis’s payout ratio is 79.41%.

Fortis Company 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.