Norges Bank Takes $120.88 Million Position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 2,938,267 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $120,880,000. Norges Bank owned 0.60% of Fortis as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rational Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortis in the third quarter worth $41,000. NBC Securities Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Fortis in the third quarter worth $96,000. Lindbrook Capital LLC increased its stake in Fortis by 111.2% during the fourth quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 2,598 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $107,000 after purchasing an additional 1,368 shares during the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC increased its stake in Fortis by 20.7% during the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 4,586 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $189,000 after purchasing an additional 786 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. increased its stake in Fortis by 9.4% during the fourth quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 5,228 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $215,000 after purchasing an additional 449 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of Fortis stock opened at $39.69 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $39.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $40.01. Fortis Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.30 and a 52 week high of $43.84. The stock has a market cap of $19.57 billion, a PE ratio of 17.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.43.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.04. Fortis had a net margin of 13.66% and a return on equity of 7.02%. The firm had revenue of $2.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.43 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.13.

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.