DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Increases Stock Holdings in Fortis $FTS

Key Points

• DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its stake in Fortis (NYSE: FTS) by 25.6% in the second quarter, now holding 377,359 shares valued at approximately $18.08 million.
• Fortis recently reported $2.03 billion in revenue for the last quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations, and its quarterly earnings per share (EPS) was $0.55, beating the consensus estimate of $0.51.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.4448, up from the previous dividend, with an annual yield of 3.4% and a payout ratio of 73.25%.

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its holdings in shares of Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Free Report) by 25.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 377,359 shares of the utilities provider's stock after buying an additional 76,850 shares during the quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale owned 0.07% of Fortis worth $18,083,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Fortis by 31.6% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 702,425 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $32,017,000 after buying an additional 168,684 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC grew its stake in Fortis by 13.9% during the 1st quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 9,904 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $451,000 after buying an additional 1,207 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Fortis by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,407,311 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $64,096,000 after buying an additional 5,266 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in Fortis by 218.6% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,648,592 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $166,303,000 after acquiring an additional 2,503,531 shares during the period. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp acquired a new stake in Fortis during the 2nd quarter worth about $65,000. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on FTS. Scotiabank reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating on shares of Fortis in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Fortis in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. National Bankshares reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating on shares of Fortis in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. CIBC reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Fortis in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Desjardins raised Fortis from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $72.00.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of FTS stock opened at $52.11 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $26.34 billion, a PE ratio of 21.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.50. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $50.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $48.68. The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30. Fortis has a 52-week low of $40.32 and a 52-week high of $52.47.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.91 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.24% and a net margin of 14.48%.During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.67 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Fortis will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 19th were issued a $0.4448 dividend. This is a boost from Fortis's previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 19th. This represents a $1.78 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. Fortis's payout ratio is presently 73.25%.

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.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding FTS? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Free Report).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.