Fortis $FTS Shares Sold by Hennessy Advisors Inc.

Hennessy Advisors Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of Fortis (NYSE:FTS) by 3.5% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 112,376 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 4,100 shares during the quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $5,364,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of FTS. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,265,742 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,014,227,000 after purchasing an additional 542,749 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in Fortis by 4.9% in the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 12,870,736 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $586,192,000 after buying an additional 604,615 shares during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its stake in 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 valued at $224,278,000 after buying an additional 1,683,377 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Fortis by 218.6% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,648,592 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $166,303,000 after buying an additional 2,503,531 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its position in shares of Fortis by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,644,691 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $120,488,000 after acquiring an additional 44,208 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FTS has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. TD Securities restated a “buy” rating on shares of Fortis in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. National Bankshares reiterated a “sector perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Zacks Research cut shares of Fortis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Fortis in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a report on Monday, August 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $72.00.

Fortis Stock Down 0.0%

Shares of Fortis stock opened at $50.26 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $49.82 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $48.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.58 and a quick ratio of 0.47. The company has a market capitalization of $25.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.68, a PEG ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 0.50. Fortis has a 1-year low of $40.32 and a 1-year high of $51.45.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.91 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.24% and a net margin of 14.48%.During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.67 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Fortis will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 19th were paid a dividend of $0.4448 per share. This represents a $1.78 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 19th. This is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is 73.25%.

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.