The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Has $142.17 Million Position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 0.7% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 3,126,939 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 22,411 shares during the quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in Fortis were worth $142,172,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 12,151,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $472,164,000 after buying an additional 270,417 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 9,199,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $357,291,000 after buying an additional 95,813 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 26.9% in the 2nd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 9,071,484 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $352,336,000 after buying an additional 1,920,728 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 3,938,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $152,955,000 after buying an additional 158,178 shares during the period. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 15.7% in the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 3,747,036 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $170,230,000 after buying an additional 507,068 shares during the period. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on FTS. UBS Group upgraded Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Bank of America initiated coverage on Fortis in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They set an “underperform” rating for the company. Raymond James downgraded Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce”.

Fortis Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE:FTS opened at $44.58 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.17 billion, a PE ratio of 18.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.47. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $44.35 and its 200 day moving average is $42.40. Fortis Inc. has a 12 month low of $36.86 and a 12 month high of $46.06.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.26. Fortis had a net margin of 14.06% and a return on equity of 7.03%. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.01 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.63 EPS. Sell-side 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 given a dividend of $0.615 per share. This is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $2.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. Fortis’s payout ratio is 76.47%.

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.