JPMorgan Chase & Co. Decreases Position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered its position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 16.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,413,781 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 476,403 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $100,341,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in Fortis by 34.1% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,006 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 256 shares during the last quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Fortis by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,087 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $211,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares during the last quarter. Code Waechter LLC increased its stake in shares of Fortis by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Code Waechter LLC now owns 18,708 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $778,000 after purchasing an additional 277 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its position in shares of Fortis by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 9,515 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $396,000 after purchasing an additional 277 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. lifted its stake in Fortis by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 89,681 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,728,000 after buying an additional 447 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Fortis in a report on Thursday, February 13th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold”.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE FTS opened at $46.17 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $44.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $43.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The company has a market cap of $23.06 billion, a PE ratio of 19.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.48. Fortis Inc. has a 12 month low of $36.86 and a 12 month high of $46.37.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.08 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.12% and a return on equity of 7.09%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.72 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a $0.4324 dividend. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 72.03%.

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.