Bollard Group LLC Grows Holdings in Fortis $FTS

Bollard Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortis (NYSE:FTS) by 17.0% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 175,488 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 25,492 shares during the period. Bollard Group LLC’s holdings in Fortis were worth $9,788,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. AQR Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Fortis during the 1st quarter worth approximately $311,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 19.1% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 565,150 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $25,760,000 after purchasing an additional 90,776 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 148.0% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,902 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $139,000 after purchasing an additional 1,732 shares during the period. Baird Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Fortis by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 33,996 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,623,000 after buying an additional 1,109 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC grew its position in Fortis by 4.4% in the 2nd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 10,343 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $494,000 after buying an additional 439 shares during the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on FTS. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce downgraded shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 17th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Fortis in a report on Friday, July 17th. TD Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Fortis in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 23rd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortis has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $61.00.

Fortis Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of FTS opened at $58.86 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 0.49 and a quick ratio of 0.41. Fortis has a 1-year low of $48.28 and a 1-year high of $59.21. The stock has a market cap of $30.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.93 and a beta of 0.43. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $56.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $55.97.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.72 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.25% and a net margin of 14.21%.During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.00 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Fortis will post 2.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Fortis

Fortis Inc is a Canadian diversified electric and gas utility holding company headquartered in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. Through a portfolio of regulated utility subsidiaries, the company develops, owns and operates electricity and natural gas transmission, distribution and generation assets. Fortis serves customers across multiple jurisdictions in Canada, the United States and the Caribbean, focusing on the delivery of safe, reliable energy to residential, commercial and industrial users.

The company’s core activities include operation and maintenance of transmission and distribution networks, ownership of generation facilities, and investment in grid modernization and system resilience.