Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Shares Bought by Geode Capital Management LLC

Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 77.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,257,486 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,853,082 shares during the quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC owned 0.85% of Fortis worth $180,686,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Fortis by 15.3% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 305,713 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,687,000 after acquiring an additional 40,580 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 45,431 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,887,000 after purchasing an additional 1,577 shares during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortis in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $249,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in Fortis by 9.9% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,720,086 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $71,396,000 after buying an additional 154,851 shares during the period. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Fortis in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $294,000. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Fortis in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Two research 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, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

Fortis Stock Down 2.3 %

Shares of NYSE:FTS opened at $46.24 on Monday. Fortis Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.86 and a fifty-two week high of $48.07. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $44.32 and its 200 day moving average price is $43.75. 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 stock has a market cap of $23.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.46.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.08 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.12% and a return on equity of 7.09%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.72 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.4324 per share. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 72.03%.

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.