Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Buys 507,068 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 15.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,747,036 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 507,068 shares during the quarter. Fortis accounts for 0.8% of Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings in Fortis were worth $170,230,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of FTS. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Fortis by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,072,102 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $793,049,000 after acquiring an additional 229,972 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Fortis by 2.3% during the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 12,151,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $472,164,000 after purchasing an additional 270,417 shares in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its holdings in Fortis by 1.1% during the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 9,199,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $357,291,000 after purchasing an additional 95,813 shares during the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank grew its position in Fortis by 26.9% in the 2nd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 9,071,484 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $352,336,000 after purchasing an additional 1,920,728 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its position in Fortis by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 3,938,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $152,955,000 after purchasing an additional 158,178 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FTS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group raised shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Raymond James lowered Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Bank of America assumed coverage on Fortis in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating for the company. Finally, StockNews.com raised Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 4th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have issued a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis has a consensus rating of “Reduce”.

Fortis Stock Up 1.2 %

FTS opened at $44.76 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $44.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $42.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. Fortis Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.86 and a twelve month high of $46.06. The stock has a market cap of $22.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.80, a PEG ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.47.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.26. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.03% and a net margin of 14.06%. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.01 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.63 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.615 per share. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $2.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.50%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.85%.

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.