John G Ullman & Associates Inc. Has $251,000 Stock Position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

John G Ullman & Associates Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 73.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,100 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 17,300 shares during the period. John G Ullman & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $251,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Fortis by 8.4% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,845,400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $70,107,000 after purchasing an additional 142,731 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Fortis by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,421,010 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $737,804,000 after purchasing an additional 353,112 shares in the last quarter. QV Investors Inc. increased its holdings in Fortis by 18.1% in the 4th quarter. QV Investors Inc. now owns 1,016,319 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $42,014,000 after purchasing an additional 155,821 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Fortis by 32.4% in the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 158,635 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,027,000 after purchasing an additional 38,803 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in Fortis by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,410,825 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $206,425,000 after purchasing an additional 90,274 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of Fortis stock opened at $38.47 on Friday. Fortis Inc. has a one year low of $36.30 and a one year high of $46.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $39.08 and its 200 day moving average is $39.94. The firm has a market cap of $18.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.73, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.42.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.00% and a net margin of 13.22%. The company had revenue of $2.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.53 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.39 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.56%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is presently 55.65%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.