Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Shares Acquired by Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV

Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV lifted its stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 58.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 13,385 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,928 shares during the quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV’s holdings in Fortis were worth $556,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FTS. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 11.9% during the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 54,149 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,461,000 after buying an additional 5,750 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 0.8% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,490,882 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $67,848,000 after buying an additional 11,500 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 15.7% during the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 3,747,036 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $170,230,000 after buying an additional 507,068 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 5.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,352,485 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $61,516,000 after buying an additional 73,682 shares during the period. Finally, Citigroup Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 11.3% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 153,325 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,974,000 after purchasing an additional 15,605 shares during the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortis Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of Fortis stock opened at $45.21 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $43.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $43.70. Fortis Inc. has a 1 year low of $36.86 and a 1 year high of $46.06. The stock has a market cap of $22.57 billion, a PE ratio of 19.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.48.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. Fortis had a net margin of 14.12% and a return on equity of 7.09%. The firm had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.08 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.72 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Fortis Inc. will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a $0.4324 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.83%. Fortis’s payout ratio is 72.03%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Fortis in a report on Thursday, February 13th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently 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.