Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Shares Sold by Baillie Gifford & Co.

Baillie Gifford & Co. reduced its position in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 26.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 234,386 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 83,573 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $9,108,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Clearbridge Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortis during the fourth quarter worth approximately $119,043,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its stake in Fortis by 11.1% during the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 300,509 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,803,000 after purchasing an additional 30,103 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of Fortis by 22.3% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 13,380,619 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $553,145,000 after buying an additional 2,438,223 shares in the last quarter. Gold Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Fortis in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,324,000. Finally, Walleye Trading LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortis in the first quarter valued at about $758,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Trading Up 0.9 %

NYSE FTS traded up $0.41 on Friday, reaching $44.04. 380,784 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 735,111. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $40.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $39.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.45. Fortis Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.30 and a fifty-two week high of $44.21.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.96 billion. Analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 20th will be given a dividend of $0.431 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 20th. Fortis’s payout ratio is presently 73.28%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com raised shares of Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 4th.

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.