DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Trims Holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale trimmed its holdings in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS - Free Report) by 19.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 270,406 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 63,627 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale owned approximately 0.06% of Fortis worth $11,022,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in Fortis by 22.4% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 24,569 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,215,000 after acquiring an additional 4,500 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in Fortis by 9.9% in the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,569 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $177,000 after acquiring an additional 322 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. raised its holdings in Fortis by 9.1% in the 1st quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 26,923 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,333,000 after acquiring an additional 2,249 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its holdings in Fortis by 45.3% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 510,446 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $25,266,000 after acquiring an additional 159,068 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Fortis by 32.5% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 212,935 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $10,540,000 after acquiring an additional 52,248 shares during the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortis Stock Performance

NYSE:FTS traded down $1.04 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $38.21. The company had a trading volume of 793,129 shares, compared to its average volume of 856,189. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. Fortis Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.30 and a 52 week high of $46.28. The firm has a market cap of $18.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.61, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.42. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $39.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $39.99.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.01. Fortis had a net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 7.00%. The firm had revenue of $2.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.39 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.53 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 2.39 EPS 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 given a dividend of $0.4382 per share. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.59%. This is a boost from Fortis's previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. Fortis's dividend payout ratio is currently 76.09%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on FTS. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Fortis from a "neutral" rating to an "underweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, December 12th. StockNews.com raised shares of Fortis from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $55.13.

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.