Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Buys 507,068 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 15.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,747,036 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 507,068 shares during the period. Fortis accounts for 0.8% of Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. owned about 0.75% of Fortis worth $170,230,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTS. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Fortis by 123.5% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 666 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 368 shares during the last quarter. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortis during the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its stake in Fortis by 53.6% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 346 shares during the period. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Fortis during the second quarter worth approximately $80,000. Finally, Cromwell Holdings LLC increased its holdings in Fortis by 52.2% in the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,000 after purchasing an additional 630 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group upgraded Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Fortis in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They set an “underperform” rating on the stock. Raymond James downgraded shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 4th. Three 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, Fortis presently has an average rating of “Reduce”.

Fortis Trading Up 1.2 %

NYSE FTS opened at $44.76 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. Fortis Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.86 and a 52 week high of $46.06. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $44.40 and a 200-day moving average price of $42.24. The company has a market cap of $22.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.80, a P/E/G ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.47.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.26. Fortis had a net margin of 14.06% and a return on equity of 7.03%. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.01 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.63 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a dividend of $0.615 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $2.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.50%. Fortis’s payout ratio is presently 71.85%.

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.