Richard C. Young & CO. LTD. Lowers Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Richard C. Young & CO. LTD. reduced its stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 40.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 164,508 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 110,519 shares during the quarter. Richard C. Young & CO. LTD.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $7,475,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in FTS. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Fortis by 4.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 489,343 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $19,006,000 after acquiring an additional 21,059 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 3,938,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $152,955,000 after purchasing an additional 158,178 shares during the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp grew its position in shares of Fortis by 10.8% during the second quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 858,512 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,380,000 after purchasing an additional 83,858 shares in the last quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 163.8% in the third quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 227,700 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $10,347,000 after purchasing an additional 141,400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its position in shares of Fortis by 11.1% in the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 300,509 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,803,000 after buying an additional 30,103 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on FTS shares. StockNews.com upgraded Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 4th. UBS Group upgraded Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Raymond James downgraded shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on shares of Fortis in a report on Friday, September 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating for the company. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have given a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce”.

Fortis Trading Down 0.2 %

FTS stock opened at $44.17 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $44.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $42.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.47. 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 twelve month low of $36.86 and a twelve month high of $46.06.

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

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a $0.615 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $2.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.57%. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is 76.05%.

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.