QV Investors Inc. Buys 155,821 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

QV Investors Inc. grew its holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS - Free Report) by 18.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,016,319 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 155,821 shares during the quarter. Fortis accounts for 3.8% of QV Investors Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. QV Investors Inc. owned approximately 0.21% of Fortis worth $42,014,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of FTS. Stifel Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 0.9% in the first quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 28,674 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,220,000 after purchasing an additional 242 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 2.4% in the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 10,638 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $404,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 1.5% in the third quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 17,463 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $663,000 after purchasing an additional 265 shares in the last quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 109,817 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $4,517,000 after purchasing an additional 313 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 9.9% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,569 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $177,000 after purchasing an additional 322 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on FTS shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Fortis from a "neutral" rating to an "underweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 12th. StockNews.com upgraded Fortis from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Fortis presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $55.13.

Fortis Price Performance

Fortis stock traded down $0.26 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $38.80. 469,874 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 585,250. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. The business has a fifty day moving average of $39.41 and a 200 day moving average of $40.01. Fortis Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.30 and a 1-year high of $46.28. The company has a market capitalization of $19.13 billion, a PE ratio of 16.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.42.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.00% and a net margin of 13.22%. The firm had revenue of $2.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.39 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.53 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a $0.4382 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This is a positive change from Fortis's previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.52%. Fortis's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 76.09%.

Fortis Company 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.