Citigroup Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Citigroup Inc. raised its stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 11.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 153,325 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,605 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $6,974,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 123.5% in the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 666 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 368 shares during the period. Nexus Investment Management ULC increased its stake in Fortis by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 83,765 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,253,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Addison Capital Co raised its position in Fortis by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Addison Capital Co now owns 39,391 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,530,000 after buying an additional 419 shares during the last quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC raised its position in Fortis by 52.2% during the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,000 after buying an additional 630 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 22,817 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $886,000 after acquiring an additional 679 shares during the period. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Fortis Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of FTS opened at $44.68 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $44.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $42.47. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $22.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.77, a PEG ratio of 4.09 and a beta of 0.47.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.26. The firm had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.01 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.03% and a net margin of 14.06%. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.63 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.615 per share. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $2.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.51%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 76.05%.

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.