Gold Investment Management Ltd. Has $3.15 Million Stock Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Gold Investment Management Ltd. decreased its position in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 0.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 69,387 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 550 shares during the period. Fortis accounts for approximately 1.3% of Gold Investment Management Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest position. Gold Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $3,154,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Fortis by 1.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,072,102 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $793,049,000 after purchasing an additional 229,972 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its position in Fortis by 2.3% during the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 12,151,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $472,164,000 after purchasing an additional 270,417 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its position in Fortis by 1.1% during the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 9,199,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $357,291,000 after purchasing an additional 95,813 shares during the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its position in Fortis by 26.9% during the second quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 9,071,484 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $352,336,000 after purchasing an additional 1,920,728 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its position in Fortis by 4.2% during the second quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 3,938,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $152,955,000 after purchasing an additional 158,178 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Trading Up 0.5 %

Fortis stock opened at $44.06 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.69. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $44.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.91 billion, a PE ratio of 18.58, a PEG ratio of 3.87 and a beta of 0.47. Fortis Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.86 and a 52 week high of $46.06.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.26. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.01 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.04% and a net margin of 13.90%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.63 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a $0.615 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. This is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $2.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.58%. Fortis’s payout ratio is presently 72.46%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on FTS. UBS Group upgraded Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Raymond James lowered Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com upgraded Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 4th. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on Fortis in a report on Friday, September 20th. They set an “underperform” rating on the stock. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have issued a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock 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.