Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Shares Purchased by BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp

BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 131.1% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 159,276 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 90,348 shares during the period. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings in Fortis were worth $7,236,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in FTS. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in Fortis by 2.3% during the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 12,151,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $472,164,000 after purchasing an additional 270,417 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 9,199,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $357,291,000 after acquiring an additional 95,813 shares in the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 26.9% during the 2nd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 9,071,484 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $352,336,000 after acquiring an additional 1,920,728 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of Fortis by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 3,938,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $152,955,000 after acquiring an additional 158,178 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its position in shares of Fortis by 15.7% during the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 3,747,036 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $170,230,000 after purchasing an additional 507,068 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of Fortis stock opened at $44.68 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. Fortis Inc. has a 1 year low of $36.86 and a 1 year high of $46.06. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $44.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $42.48. The company has a market cap of $22.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.77, a P/E/G ratio of 4.08 and a beta of 0.47.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.26. Fortis had a net margin of 14.06% and a return on equity of 7.03%. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.01 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.63 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th were issued a dividend of $0.615 per share. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $2.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 18th. Fortis’s payout ratio is currently 76.47%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.