Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Fortis $FTS

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortis (NYSE:FTS) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 13,246 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $632,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 2.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,265,742 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,014,227,000 after purchasing an additional 542,749 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 4.9% during the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 12,870,736 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $586,192,000 after purchasing an additional 604,615 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 52.0% during the first quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 4,922,870 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $224,278,000 after purchasing an additional 1,683,377 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 218.6% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,648,592 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $166,303,000 after purchasing an additional 2,503,531 shares during the period. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 1.7% during the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,644,691 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $120,488,000 after purchasing an additional 44,208 shares during the period. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of FTS opened at $51.70 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $50.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $48.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.13 billion, a PE ratio of 21.28, a P/E/G ratio of 4.03 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30. Fortis has a 52-week low of $40.32 and a 52-week high of $51.75.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.91 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.48% and a return on equity of 7.24%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.67 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortis will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 19th were given a $0.4448 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 19th. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.4%. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Fortis’s payout ratio is currently 73.25%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FTS has been the subject of several recent research reports. Zacks Research lowered shares of Fortis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Fortis in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. TD Securities restated a “buy” rating on shares of Fortis in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a research report on Monday, August 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $72.00.

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.