First Trust Advisors LP Sells 28,519 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

First Trust Advisors LP reduced its position in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS - Free Report) by 2.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,104,487 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 28,519 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP owned 0.22% of Fortis worth $45,911,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of FTS. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Fortis by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,722,993 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $902,656,000 after acquiring an additional 364,391 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Fortis by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. now owns 12,266,121 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $509,425,000 after purchasing an additional 173,226 shares during the last quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 9,148,037 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $379,614,000 after acquiring an additional 329,767 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Fortis in the 4th quarter worth about $182,242,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Fortis by 77.1% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,257,486 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $180,686,000 after buying an additional 1,853,082 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Fortis Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:FTS traded down $0.07 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $48.56. 36,837 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 625,792. The business's 50 day moving average is $45.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $44.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.36 billion, a PE ratio of 20.62, a P/E/G ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30. Fortis Inc. has a one year low of $38.15 and a one year high of $48.94.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.08 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.09% and a net margin of 14.12%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.72 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.4324 per share. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. Fortis's dividend payout ratio is 72.03%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Fortis in a report on Thursday, February 13th. They issued a "hold" rating on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold".

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.