Metis Global Partners LLC Trims Stock Position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Metis Global Partners LLC reduced its stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 15,003 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 825 shares during the quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC’s holdings in Fortis were worth $682,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of FTS. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its position in Fortis by 53.6% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 346 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased 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 during the period. Nexus Investment Management ULC raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 0.5% during the second quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 83,765 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,253,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Addison Capital Co lifted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 1.1% during the second quarter. Addison Capital Co now owns 39,391 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,530,000 after purchasing an additional 419 shares during the period. Finally, Cromwell Holdings LLC grew its position in 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 buying an additional 630 shares during the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortis Stock Down 0.2 %

FTS stock opened at $44.17 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $44.41 and its 200 day moving average price is $42.18. Fortis Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.86 and a 52 week high of $46.06. The company has a market cap of $21.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.56, a P/E/G ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.47.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.26. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.03% and a net margin of 14.06%. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.01 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.63 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a $0.615 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $2.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.57%. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 71.85%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTS has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Fortis in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating for the company. Raymond James lowered Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. UBS Group raised Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Reduce”.

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.