O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC Trims Stock Position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC cut its stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 6.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 13,422 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 978 shares during the quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Fortis were worth $557,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC purchased a new stake in Fortis during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $249,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in Fortis by 9.9% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,720,086 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $71,396,000 after acquiring an additional 154,851 shares during the last quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Fortis during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $294,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its stake in Fortis by 17.6% during the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 240,725 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,998,000 after acquiring an additional 36,037 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Fortis during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $182,242,000. 57.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Fortis in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of FTS stock opened at $44.39 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $22.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.46. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $44.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $43.76. Fortis Inc. has a 12-month low of $36.86 and a 12-month high of $48.07. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued 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 business had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.08 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.09% and a net margin of 14.12%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.72 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a $0.4324 dividend. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 72.03%.

Fortis Company 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.