Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Stock Position Cut by Cibc World Market Inc.

Cibc World Market Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,889,798 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 296,695 shares during the period. Cibc World Market Inc. owned approximately 1.59% of Fortis worth $306,755,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FIL Ltd raised its holdings in Fortis by 33.8% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 19,477,406 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $801,263,000 after purchasing an additional 4,924,031 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Fortis in the 4th quarter worth $120,880,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortis in the fourth quarter valued at $119,043,000. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in Fortis by 22.3% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 13,380,619 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $553,145,000 after buying an additional 2,438,223 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in Fortis by 44.6% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,653,873 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $109,154,000 after acquiring an additional 818,835 shares during the period. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Fortis Price Performance

NYSE FTS opened at $44.76 on Thursday. Fortis Inc. has a 1 year low of $36.30 and a 1 year high of $45.34. The business’s fifty day moving average is $42.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $40.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.69.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.02. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.04% and a net margin of 13.90%. The business had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.96 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 20th were paid a dividend of $0.431 per share. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 20th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is presently 73.71%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com raised shares of Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 4th.

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.