Canoe Financial LP Cuts Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Canoe Financial LP reduced its holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 11.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 11,492 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,476 shares during the quarter. Canoe Financial LP’s holdings in Fortis were worth $477,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of FTS. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its holdings in Fortis by 34.1% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,006 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 256 shares during the period. JCIC Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,087 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $211,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Code Waechter LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Code Waechter LLC now owns 18,708 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $778,000 after purchasing an additional 277 shares in the last quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 52.2% in the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $83,000 after purchasing an additional 630 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its holdings in Fortis by 13.1% during the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 7,865 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $357,000 after buying an additional 910 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on FTS. 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 initiated coverage on Fortis in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating for the company.

Fortis Price Performance

Fortis stock opened at $41.98 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.96 billion, a PE ratio of 17.64, a P/E/G ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 0.50. Fortis Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.86 and a 52 week high of $46.06. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $43.08. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.26. Fortis had a net margin of 14.06% and a return on equity of 7.01%. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.01 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.63 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Fortis Inc. will post 2.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.4382 per share. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 79.41%.

Fortis Company 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.