Baillie Gifford & Co. Purchases 376,947 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Baillie Gifford & Co. boosted its position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS - Free Report) by 1,273.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 406,552 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 376,947 shares during the quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. owned about 0.08% of Fortis worth $16,807,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of FTS. Stifel Financial Corp raised its position in shares of Fortis by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 28,674 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,220,000 after buying an additional 242 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its position in shares of Fortis by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 10,638 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $404,000 after buying an additional 253 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers raised its position in shares of Fortis by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 17,463 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $663,000 after buying an additional 265 shares in the last quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. raised its position in shares of Fortis by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 109,817 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $4,517,000 after buying an additional 313 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 322 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE FTS traded down $0.25 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $37.95. 832,380 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 855,848. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The company's 50 day moving average is $39.28 and its 200 day moving average is $39.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.42. Fortis Inc. has a one year low of $36.30 and a one year high of $46.28.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last announced 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 company had revenue of $2.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.53 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.39 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $0.4382 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.62%. This is a boost from Fortis's previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. Fortis's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 76.09%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com lowered shares of Fortis from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus 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.