Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership Has $103.46 Million Stock Holdings in Fortis $FTS

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Fortis (NYSE:FTS) by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 2,165,888 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 73,997 shares during the quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership’s holdings in Fortis were worth $103,460,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position in shares of Fortis by 2.1% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 18,965 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $864,000 after purchasing an additional 381 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC boosted its stake in Fortis by 1.0% during the first quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 51,722 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,357,000 after buying an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in Fortis by 21.8% during the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 17,711 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $807,000 after buying an additional 3,167 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Fortis by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,265,742 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,014,227,000 after buying an additional 542,749 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,407,311 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $64,096,000 after buying an additional 5,266 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on FTS shares. National Bankshares reiterated a “sector perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. CIBC reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Fortis in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Fortis in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Scotiabank reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a research note on Monday, October 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $72.00.

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of Fortis stock opened at $51.11 on Thursday. Fortis has a 1-year low of $40.32 and a 1-year high of $52.83. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $51.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $49.54. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.29, a P/E/G ratio of 4.92 and a beta of 0.50.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.61 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $2.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.22 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.05% and a net margin of 14.18%. On average, equities analysts predict that Fortis will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 17th were paid a $0.64 dividend. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. This represents a $2.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 17th. Fortis’s payout ratio is presently 75.83%.

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.