Hennessy Advisors Inc. Purchases 3,700 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Hennessy Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 3.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 121,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,700 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $5,062,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of FTS. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in Fortis by 34.1% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,006 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 256 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets bought a new stake in shares of Fortis in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $44,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of Fortis by 52.2% during the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $83,000 after buying an additional 630 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new position in shares of Fortis during the third quarter valued at approximately $149,000. Finally, CHICAGO TRUST Co NA purchased a new stake in Fortis in the third quarter worth $209,000. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on FTS. Raymond James downgraded shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Fortis in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They set an “underperform” rating on the stock.

Fortis Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:FTS opened at $41.98 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.74. Fortis Inc. has a 52-week low of $36.86 and a 52-week high of $46.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.64, a P/E/G ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 0.50. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $42.92 and a 200-day moving average price of $43.08.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.01 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.63 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm 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 dividend of $0.4382 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.18%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 79.41%.

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.