Fiera Capital Corp Has $39.37 Million Stock Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Fiera Capital Corp boosted its position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 865,257 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,745 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp owned 0.17% of Fortis worth $39,365,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTS. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Fortis by 4.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 489,343 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $19,006,000 after acquiring an additional 21,059 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in Fortis by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 3,938,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $152,955,000 after purchasing an additional 158,178 shares in the last quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 163.8% in the third quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 227,700 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $10,347,000 after purchasing an additional 141,400 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 11.1% in the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 300,509 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $11,803,000 after purchasing an additional 30,103 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortis by 56.4% during the second quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 48,399 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,880,000 after buying an additional 17,450 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of Fortis stock opened at $44.18 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $21.97 billion, a PE ratio of 18.72, a P/E/G ratio of 3.87 and a beta of 0.47. Fortis Inc. has a 1 year low of $36.86 and a 1 year high of $46.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $44.45 and a 200-day moving average price of $41.97.

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. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.01 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 13.90% and a return on equity of 7.04%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.63 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.33 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a $0.615 dividend. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $2.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.57%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is presently 72.46%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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