TD Asset Management Inc. Grows Position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

TD Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 12,266,121 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 173,226 shares during the quarter. TD Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $509,425,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTS. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in shares of Fortis by 724.3% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 577 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 507 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortis during the fourth quarter worth $38,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 256 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets purchased a new position in Fortis in the third quarter valued at $44,000. Finally, Lindbrook Capital LLC raised its stake in Fortis by 38.5% in the fourth quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 2,726 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $113,000 after buying an additional 758 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Fortis in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold”.

Fortis Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:FTS opened at $44.92 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $43.71. Fortis Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.86 and a twelve month high of $46.06. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30. The company has a market capitalization of $22.43 billion, a PE ratio of 19.03, a P/E/G ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.48.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.08 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.12% and a return on equity of 7.09%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.72 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.4324 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.85%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is presently 72.03%.

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.