Natixis Advisors LLC Boosts Stock Position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Natixis Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 4.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 56,604 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,455 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Fortis were worth $2,353,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in FTS. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its holdings in Fortis by 21.8% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 5,190,336 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $235,839,000 after purchasing an additional 930,331 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Europe London LLP lifted its holdings in Fortis by 413.6% in the 3rd quarter. Point72 Europe London LLP now owns 395,474 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $17,973,000 after purchasing an additional 318,474 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new position in Fortis in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $13,236,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Fortis by 9.5% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,890,184 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $131,330,000 after purchasing an additional 250,630 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Fortis by 10.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,404,404 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $111,771,000 after purchasing an additional 223,733 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Fortis in a report on Thursday, February 13th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

Fortis Stock Performance

NYSE:FTS opened at $45.00 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.63. Fortis Inc. has a 1 year low of $36.86 and a 1 year high of $46.06. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $43.56 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $43.71. The company has a market cap of $22.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.07, a PEG ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.48.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.09% and a net margin of 14.12%. The business had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.08 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.72 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid a $0.4324 dividend. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. Fortis’s payout ratio is 72.03%.

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.