DORCHESTER WEALTH MANAGEMENT Co Lowers Stock Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

DORCHESTER WEALTH MANAGEMENT Co cut its holdings in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 2.6% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 11,331 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 305 shares during the quarter. DORCHESTER WEALTH MANAGEMENT Co’s holdings in Fortis were worth $515,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FTS. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew 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 in the last quarter. Ridgewood Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortis in the second quarter worth $32,000. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Fortis by 53.6% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 346 shares during the period. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Fortis in the first quarter valued at $60,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Fortis in the first quarter valued at $69,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of FTS traded down $0.32 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $44.58. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 50,309 shares, compared to its average volume of 699,664. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.58. Fortis Inc. has a 12-month low of $36.86 and a 12-month high of $46.06. The stock has a market cap of $22.08 billion, a PE ratio of 19.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.83 and a beta of 0.47. The company’s 50 day moving average is $44.51 and its 200 day moving average is $41.54.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.96 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 13.90% and a return on equity of 7.04%. Equities analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a $0.615 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $2.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.52%. Fortis’s payout ratio is 78.02%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. StockNews.com raised Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 4th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Fortis in a research report on Friday, September 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating on the stock.

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.