Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Shares Acquired by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 4.5% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 489,343 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 21,059 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in Fortis were worth $19,006,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of FTS. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Fortis by 123.5% in the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 666 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 368 shares in the last quarter. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new position in Fortis in the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its position in Fortis by 53.6% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 346 shares in the last quarter. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new position in Fortis in the 1st quarter valued at about $60,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in Fortis in the 1st quarter valued at about $69,000. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FTS opened at $44.47 on Friday. Fortis Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.86 and a twelve month high of $46.06. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The company has a market capitalization of $22.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.17, a PEG ratio of 3.99 and a beta of 0.47. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $44.04 and a two-hundred day moving average of $41.09.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.02. Fortis had a net margin of 13.90% and a return on equity of 7.04%. The company had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.96 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.615 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $2.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.53%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 106.03%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on FTS. UBS Group upgraded shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. StockNews.com raised shares of Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 4th. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Fortis in a report on Friday, September 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating for the company.

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.