Shell Asset Management Co. Acquires 40,577 Shares of Fortis $FTS

Key Points

• Shell Asset Management Co. increased its stake in Fortis by 121.3% during the second quarter, acquiring an additional 40,577 shares, bringing its total holdings to 74,023 shares valued at $3,527,000.
• Fortis recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.4448, which represents a slight increase from the previous dividend, yielding approximately 3.5% with a payout ratio of 73.25%.
• Analysts have a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" for Fortis, with a target price of $72.00 and a mix of ratings including one Strong Buy and five Buy ratings.

Shell Asset Management Co. grew its holdings in shares of Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Free Report) by 121.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 74,023 shares of the utilities provider's stock after buying an additional 40,577 shares during the period. Shell Asset Management Co.'s holdings in Fortis were worth $3,527,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of FTS. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Fortis during the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 286.7% during the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,106 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 820 shares in the last quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 111.7% during the 1st quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,226 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $56,000 after buying an additional 647 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp bought a new stake in shares of Fortis during the 2nd quarter valued at $65,000. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 158,500.0% during the 1st quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 1,586 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $72,000 after buying an additional 1,585 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on FTS shares. TD Securities reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Fortis in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Raymond James Financial reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Fortis in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Fortis in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of Fortis in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of Fortis from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortis currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $72.00.

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:FTS opened at $50.39 on Wednesday. Fortis has a fifty-two week low of $40.32 and a fifty-two week high of $51.45. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $49.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $48.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.58. The firm has a market cap of $25.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.90 and a beta of 0.50.

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

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 19th were given a $0.4448 dividend. This is a positive change 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.5%. 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.

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