Richard C. Young & CO. LTD. Sells 110,519 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Richard C. Young & CO. LTD. lowered its stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 40.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 164,508 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 110,519 shares during the period. Richard C. Young & CO. LTD.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $7,475,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 123.5% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 666 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 368 shares during the last quarter. Ridgewood Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Fortis during the 2nd quarter valued at $32,000. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 53.6% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 346 shares during the period. Cromwell Holdings LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 52.2% in the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,000 after buying an additional 630 shares during the last quarter. Finally, 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Fortis in the second quarter worth $80,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Stock Performance

NYSE:FTS opened at $44.17 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $44.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.69. Fortis Inc. has a 52-week low of $36.86 and a 52-week high of $46.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.97 billion, a PE ratio of 18.56, a P/E/G ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.47.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.26. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.03% and a net margin of 14.06%. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.01 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.63 EPS. Analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a $0.615 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $2.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.57%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is 76.05%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Raymond James downgraded Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Fortis in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating on the stock. UBS Group upgraded shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 4th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Reduce”.

Fortis Company 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.