Richard C. Young & CO. LTD. Decreases Stock Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Richard C. Young & CO. LTD. lessened its stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 4.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 156,864 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 7,644 shares during the quarter. Richard C. Young & CO. LTD.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $6,521,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in shares of Fortis by 34.1% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,006 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 256 shares during the period. JCIC Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Fortis by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,087 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $211,000 after buying an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Code Waechter LLC raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Code Waechter LLC now owns 18,708 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $778,000 after acquiring an additional 277 shares during the last quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 89,681 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,728,000 after acquiring an additional 447 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of Fortis by 724.3% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 577 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 507 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortis Stock Performance

FTS opened at $43.52 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.73 billion, a PE ratio of 18.29, a PEG ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. Fortis Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.86 and a twelve month high of $46.06. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $42.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $43.40.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.