National Bank of Canada FI Sells 196,668 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

National Bank of Canada FI lessened its holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 3.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,374,425 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 196,668 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI owned about 1.10% of Fortis worth $220,559,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of FTS. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 1.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,421,010 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $737,804,000 after buying an additional 353,112 shares in the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank increased its holdings in Fortis by 11.4% in the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 12,664,645 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $481,130,000 after purchasing an additional 1,294,939 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its position in Fortis by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 8,080,594 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $332,583,000 after purchasing an additional 561,176 shares during the last quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 4.1% during the third quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 7,724,238 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $292,877,000 after purchasing an additional 306,228 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia grew its holdings in shares of Fortis by 5.0% during the third quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 7,026,899 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $266,901,000 after purchasing an additional 334,623 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com lowered Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.13.

Fortis Stock Up 0.3 %

NYSE FTS traded up $0.13 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $39.91. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 546,819 shares, compared to its average volume of 706,068. The company has a market capitalization of $19.68 billion, a PE ratio of 17.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. Fortis Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.30 and a 52 week high of $46.28. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.08 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $39.95.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.39 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.02% and a net margin of 13.66%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.53 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a $0.4382 dividend. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is 54.74%.

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.