Davis Rea LTD. boosted its stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS – Get Rating) by 343.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 88,778 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 68,746 shares during the quarter. Davis Rea LTD.'s holdings in Fortis were worth $4,196,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of FTS. Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortis in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Power Corp of Canada acquired a new position in Fortis during the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its stake in Fortis by 20.3% during the first quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,521 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $75,000 after purchasing an additional 257 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted 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 valued at $177,000 after purchasing an additional 322 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lombard Odier Asset Management Switzerland SA bought a new position in shares of Fortis in the 4th quarter valued at $221,000. Institutional investors own 49.38% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Edward Jones downgraded Fortis from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 27th. UBS Group cut shares of Fortis from a "neutral" rating to a "sell" rating and set a $56.00 target price for the company. in a report on Thursday, June 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $59.88.

Fortis Trading Down 1.9 %

Fortis (NYSE:FTS – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.48 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.73 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 12.77% and a return on equity of 6.53%. Sell-side analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 1st. Investors of record on Friday, August 19th were given a dividend of $0.4149 per share. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 18th. Fortis's dividend payout ratio is currently 79.33%.

Fortis Profile

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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 438,000 retail customers in southeastern Arizona; and 100,000 retail customers in Arizona's Mohave and Santa Cruz counties with an aggregate capacity of 3,485 megawatts (MW), including 53 MW of solar capacity and 252 MV of wind capacity.

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