United Services Automobile Association Has $664,000 Stock Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

United Services Automobile Association decreased its stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,619 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 370 shares during the quarter. United Services Automobile Association’s holdings in Fortis were worth $664,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Nexus Investment Management ULC grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 0.5% in the second quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 83,765 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,253,000 after buying an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Addison Capital Co lifted its stake in Fortis by 1.1% in the second quarter. Addison Capital Co now owns 39,391 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,530,000 after acquiring an additional 419 shares during the last quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC grew its position in shares of Fortis by 52.2% in the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $83,000 after acquiring an additional 630 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in shares of Fortis by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 22,817 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $886,000 after purchasing an additional 679 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortis in the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Stock Down 0.9 %

Fortis stock opened at $44.48 on Monday. Fortis Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.86 and a twelve month high of $46.06. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $44.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $42.61. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The stock has a market cap of $22.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.69, a P/E/G ratio of 4.08 and a beta of 0.49.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.26. Fortis had a net margin of 14.06% and a return on equity of 7.01%. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.01 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.63 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be given a $0.4382 dividend. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. Fortis’s payout ratio is currently 76.05%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTS has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group upgraded Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Bank of America assumed coverage on Fortis in a report on Friday, September 20th. They set an “underperform” rating on the stock. Finally, Raymond James downgraded Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortis presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce”.

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.