Unigestion Holding SA Acquires New Position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Unigestion Holding SA bought a new position in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 62,283 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,830,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Fortis by 10.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,404,404 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $111,771,000 after buying an additional 223,733 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new stake in shares of Fortis in the third quarter worth about $13,236,000. National Bank of Canada FI raised its position in shares of Fortis by 21.8% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 5,190,336 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $235,839,000 after purchasing an additional 930,331 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 18.3% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 43,854 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,995,000 after purchasing an additional 6,779 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. grew its position in shares of Fortis by 60.0% in the 3rd quarter. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. now owns 40,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,818,000 after purchasing an additional 15,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Raymond James cut shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Bank of America began coverage on Fortis in a research report on Friday, September 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating on the stock. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have given a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis has a consensus rating of “Reduce”.

Fortis Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE FTS opened at $43.61 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $44.27 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $42.64. Fortis Inc. has a 12 month low of $36.86 and a 12 month high of $46.06. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The company has a market cap of $21.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.32, a PEG ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 0.49.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.26. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.01% and a net margin of 14.06%. The firm had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.01 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.63 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.4382 per share. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is presently 76.47%.

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.