Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Shares Sold by Van ECK Associates Corp

Van ECK Associates Corp reduced its stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 3.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 110,026 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 3,509 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Fortis were worth $4,528,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rational Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortis in the third quarter worth $41,000. NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in Fortis in the third quarter worth about $96,000. Lindbrook Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 111.2% in the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 2,598 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $107,000 after acquiring an additional 1,368 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Fortis in the fourth quarter worth approximately $254,000. Finally, Versor Investments LP boosted its stake in Fortis by 12.0% during the third quarter. Versor Investments LP now owns 6,535 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $248,000 after buying an additional 700 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Fortis Price Performance

FTS opened at $39.91 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.20, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.42. Fortis Inc. has a 12-month low of $36.30 and a 12-month high of $46.28. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $39.09 and a 200-day moving average of $39.94.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.39 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 13.66% and a return on equity of 7.02%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.53 EPS. Equities analysts forecast 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. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $0.4382 per share. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.39%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 55.17%.

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.