Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec Sells 6,197 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec cut its stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor 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 owned about 0.09% of Fortis worth $21,029,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased 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 valued at $19,006,000 after buying an additional 21,059 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its position in shares of Fortis by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 3,938,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $152,955,000 after acquiring an additional 158,178 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 10.8% in the 2nd 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 during the period. Intact Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 163.8% in the 3rd quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 227,700 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $10,347,000 after purchasing an additional 141,400 shares during the period. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortis by 56.4% during the second quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 48,399 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,880,000 after purchasing an additional 17,450 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:FTS opened at $44.68 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $44.36 and a 200-day moving average price of $42.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The company has a market capitalization of $22.22 billion, a PE ratio of 18.77, a PEG ratio of 4.08 and a beta of 0.47. Fortis Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.86 and a 1-year high of $46.06.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.26. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 business earned $0.63 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.