Code Waechter LLC Grows Position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Code Waechter LLC grew its position in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 18,708 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 277 shares during the period. Code Waechter LLC’s holdings in Fortis were worth $778,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in FTS. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in Fortis by 34.1% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,006 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 256 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets acquired a new stake in shares of Fortis during the 3rd quarter valued at about $44,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC raised its holdings in Fortis by 52.2% in the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,000 after purchasing an additional 630 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in Fortis during the third quarter worth approximately $149,000. Finally, CHICAGO TRUST Co NA acquired a new stake in Fortis in the third quarter valued at approximately $209,000. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortis Stock Performance

NYSE FTS opened at $40.71 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $43.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $43.07. The company has a market cap of $20.33 billion, a PE ratio of 17.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.87 and a beta of 0.50. Fortis Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.86 and a 1-year high of $46.06.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.26. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.01% and a net margin of 14.06%. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.01 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.63 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.4382 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.31%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.43%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on FTS shares. Bank of America assumed coverage on Fortis in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They set an “underperform” rating for the company. Raymond James lowered shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th.

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.