Royal Bank of Canada Sells 1,018,250 Shares of Fortis $FTS

Key Points

• Royal Bank of Canada reduced its stake in Fortis by 3.5% in the 1st quarter, selling 1,018,250 shares, but still holds approximately 27.9 million shares valued at $1.27 billion.
• Fortis announced a quarterly dividend increase to $0.4448 per share, effective September 1st, reflecting a 3.6% yield based on a payout ratio of 73.25%.
• Analysts have mixed views on Fortis, with one rating it as a Strong Buy and various others offering ratings from Buy to Sell, resulting in a consensus rating of "Hold" and a target price of $72.00.

Royal Bank of Canada reduced its stake in Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Free Report) by 3.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 27,947,548 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 1,018,250 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada owned approximately 5.57% of Fortis worth $1,273,849,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Barclays PLC raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 135.0% during the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 7,542 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $313,000 after purchasing an additional 4,332 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Fortis by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 577,311 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $23,999,000 after buying an additional 28,642 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 79.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 347,403 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $14,442,000 after acquiring an additional 153,416 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 114.7% during the fourth quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 20,646 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $858,000 after acquiring an additional 161,482 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 6,265 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $260,000 after acquiring an additional 282 shares during the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on FTS. Zacks Research lowered Fortis from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, August 18th. Desjardins raised Fortis from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Fortis in a report on Monday, August 4th. Cibc World Mkts upgraded Fortis from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on Fortis from $69.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $72.00.

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of Fortis stock traded down $0.12 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $49.43. The stock had a trading volume of 405,577 shares, compared to its average volume of 548,072. The business has a fifty day moving average of $48.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $47.39. The firm has a market cap of $24.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.34, a PEG ratio of 3.87 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.58 and a quick ratio of 0.47. Fortis has a fifty-two week low of $40.32 and a fifty-two week high of $51.45.

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

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 19th were issued a dividend of $0.4448 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 19th. This is a boost from Fortis's previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.6%. Fortis's dividend payout ratio is 73.25%.

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.