Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec Decreases Stock Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lowered its stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 462,321 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 6,197 shares during the quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec’s holdings in Fortis were worth $21,029,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 123.5% in the 1st 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 purchased a new position in Fortis in the second quarter worth about $32,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets purchased a new position in Fortis in the third quarter worth about $44,000. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Fortis during the 2nd quarter valued at about $80,000. Finally, Cromwell Holdings LLC increased its position in shares of Fortis by 52.2% during the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $83,000 after purchasing an additional 630 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FTS has been the subject of several recent research reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 4th. UBS Group raised shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Bank of America began coverage on Fortis in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating for the company. Finally, Raymond James downgraded 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce”.

Fortis Price Performance

NYSE FTS opened at $44.68 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. Fortis Inc. has a 12 month low of $36.86 and a 12 month high of $46.06. The stock has a market cap of $22.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.77, a PEG ratio of 4.08 and a beta of 0.47. The company’s 50 day moving average is $44.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $42.48.

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

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th were given a $0.615 dividend. This represents a $2.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.51%. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 18th. Fortis’s payout ratio is presently 76.47%.

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.