Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC Has $718,000 Stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 7.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 17,276 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,182 shares during the period. Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Fortis were worth $718,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in FTS. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 34.1% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,006 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 256 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets acquired a new stake in Fortis in the 3rd quarter valued at about $44,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 52.2% in the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,000 after acquiring an additional 630 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new position in shares of Fortis in the third quarter worth about $149,000. Finally, CHICAGO TRUST Co NA acquired a new position in shares of Fortis during the third quarter worth approximately $209,000. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Price Performance

Fortis stock opened at $41.98 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $43.14. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The stock has a market cap of $20.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.64, a P/E/G ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 0.50. Fortis Inc. has a 12-month low of $36.86 and a 12-month high of $46.06.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.26. Fortis had a net margin of 14.06% and a return on equity of 7.01%. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.01 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.63 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 2.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.4382 per share. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is presently 79.41%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Raymond James lowered shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th.

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.