Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Shares Bought by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. raised its position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 1.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,143,816 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,773 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. owned about 0.23% of Fortis worth $47,201,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quilter Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Fortis in the first quarter valued at approximately $330,614,000. Power Corp of Canada acquired a new position in shares of Fortis during the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. IFP Advisors Inc increased its stake in shares of Fortis by 78.7% during the second quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 888 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 391 shares during the period. Rational Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortis during the third quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Finally, Macquarie Group Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Fortis during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $61,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com lowered shares of Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $55.13.

Fortis Price Performance

NYSE FTS opened at $38.47 on Friday. Fortis Inc. has a 12 month low of $36.30 and a 12 month high of $46.28. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $18.97 billion, a PE ratio of 16.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.42. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $39.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $39.94.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.39 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 7.00%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.53 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 2.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.4382 per share. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.56%. 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 (DPR) is presently 55.65%.

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.