Cumberland Partners Ltd Buys 1,700 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Cumberland Partners Ltd boosted its stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 6.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 27,900 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,700 shares during the quarter. Cumberland Partners Ltd’s holdings in Fortis were worth $1,159,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 149,151 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,194,000 after purchasing an additional 12,430 shares in the last quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. lifted its stake in Fortis by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 89,681 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,728,000 after acquiring an additional 447 shares in the last quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Fortis by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,385 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $224,000 after acquiring an additional 698 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortis during the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. Finally, Clear Creek Financial Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortis in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $203,000. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortis Price Performance

NYSE:FTS opened at $43.95 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.94 billion, a PE ratio of 18.62, a P/E/G ratio of 4.05 and a beta of 0.50. Fortis Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.86 and a 1-year high of $46.06. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $43.57. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. Fortis had a net margin of 14.12% and a return on equity of 7.19%. The company had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.08 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.72 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a $0.4324 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.94%. Fortis’s payout ratio is 80.08%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on FTS. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Fortis in a report on Thursday, February 13th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Raymond James cut Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis currently has an average 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.