TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. Acquires 125,447 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. raised its holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 3.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,339,678 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 125,447 shares during the period. Fortis comprises about 1.5% of TD Waterhouse Canada Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 17th largest position. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. owned approximately 0.87% of Fortis worth $179,862,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Fortis during the 4th quarter valued at about $182,242,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Fortis by 77.1% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,257,486 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $180,686,000 after acquiring an additional 1,853,082 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Fortis by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,722,993 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $902,656,000 after acquiring an additional 364,391 shares during the last quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 9,148,037 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $379,614,000 after acquiring an additional 329,767 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mufg Securities Canada LTD. raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 72.8% in the fourth quarter. Mufg Securities Canada LTD. now owns 759,384 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $31,534,000 after purchasing an additional 319,884 shares during the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortis Trading Up 1.1 %

NYSE FTS opened at $48.16 on Monday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $45.05 and its 200-day moving average is $43.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.41, a PEG ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.46. Fortis Inc. has a one year low of $38.15 and a one year high of $48.38.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 EPS 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 7.09%. The business had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.08 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.72 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid a $0.4324 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.73 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.59%. Fortis’s payout ratio is presently 72.03%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Fortis in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis currently has an average rating of “Hold”.

Fortis 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.