Wellington Management Group LLP Increases Stock Position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 19.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 68,301 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,261 shares during the quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP’s holdings in Fortis were worth $2,606,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 8.4% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,845,400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $70,107,000 after acquiring an additional 142,731 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 32.4% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 158,635 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,027,000 after acquiring an additional 38,803 shares in the last quarter. Aviva PLC raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 8.6% during the third quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 658,009 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $25,078,000 after acquiring an additional 52,014 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 1.7% during the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,410,825 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $206,425,000 after acquiring an additional 90,274 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 67.5% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 53,886 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,047,000 after acquiring an additional 21,712 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Fortis from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.13.

Fortis Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE FTS opened at $39.37 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. Fortis Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.30 and a 52 week high of $46.28. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $39.52 and its 200 day moving average is $40.11. The company has a market cap of $19.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.12, a PEG ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.42.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01. Fortis had a net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 7.00%. The company had revenue of $2.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.53 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a $0.4382 dividend. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.45%. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. Fortis’s payout ratio is presently 76.09%.

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.