Triasima Portfolio Management inc. Purchases 96,685 Shares of Fortis $FTS

Key Points

• Triasima Portfolio Management Inc. increased its stake in Fortis by 85.5% in Q2, acquiring 96,685 shares to hold a total of 209,745 shares, valued at nearly $10 million.
• Other institutional investors, including Goldman Sachs and Vanguard Group, also significantly boosted their holdings in Fortis, with institutional ownership now at 57.77%.
• Fortis recently declared an increased quarterly dividend of $0.4448 per share, raising its annualized dividend yield to 3.5%.

Triasima Portfolio Management inc. grew its position in shares of Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Free Report) by 85.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 209,745 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 96,685 shares during the quarter. Fortis comprises approximately 1.8% of Triasima Portfolio Management inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Triasima Portfolio Management inc.'s holdings in Fortis were worth $9,995,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in Fortis by 218.6% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,648,592 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $166,303,000 after buying an additional 2,503,531 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its stake in Fortis by 52.0% during the first quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 4,922,870 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $224,278,000 after buying an additional 1,683,377 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec purchased a new position in Fortis during the first quarter worth $54,838,000. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in Fortis by 4.9% during the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 12,870,736 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $586,192,000 after buying an additional 604,615 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Fortis by 2.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,265,742 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,014,227,000 after buying an additional 542,749 shares during the period. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on FTS shares. Desjardins raised shares of Fortis from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. National Bankshares reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating on shares of Fortis in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of Fortis in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Fortis in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, Scotiabank reiterated a "sector perform" rating on shares of Fortis in a research report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $72.00.

Fortis Stock Down 0.2%

NYSE:FTS opened at $50.39 on Wednesday. Fortis has a twelve month low of $40.32 and a twelve month high of $51.45. The company 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. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $49.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $48.27. The company has a current ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.91 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.67 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Fortis will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 19th were paid a dividend of $0.4448 per share. This is an increase from Fortis's previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $1.78 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 19th. Fortis's payout ratio is 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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