Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership Raises Stock Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 9.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,720,086 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 154,851 shares during the quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership owned 0.34% of Fortis worth $71,396,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 724.3% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 577 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 507 shares during the period. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Fortis in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in Fortis by 34.1% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,006 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 256 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets purchased a new position in shares of Fortis during the third quarter worth approximately $44,000. Finally, Lindbrook Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 38.5% during the fourth quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 2,726 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $113,000 after acquiring an additional 758 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of FTS stock opened at $45.57 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $43.99 and its 200 day moving average is $43.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30. The firm has a market cap of $22.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.31, a PEG ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.48. Fortis Inc. has a 52-week low of $36.86 and a 52-week high of $46.08.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.08 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.09% and a net margin of 14.12%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.72 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.4324 per share. This represents a $1.73 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. Fortis’s payout ratio is 72.03%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Fortis in a report on Thursday, February 13th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

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.