Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV Buys 4,928 Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)

Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV grew its stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 58.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 13,385 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,928 shares during the period. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV’s holdings in Fortis were worth $556,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 21.8% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 5,190,336 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $235,839,000 after purchasing an additional 930,331 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted 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 valued at $170,230,000 after purchasing an additional 507,068 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 0.7% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,126,939 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $142,172,000 after purchasing an additional 22,411 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 9.5% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,890,184 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $131,330,000 after purchasing an additional 250,630 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 10.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,404,404 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $111,771,000 after purchasing an additional 223,733 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Fortis in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold”.

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of FTS opened at $45.21 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $22.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.48. Fortis Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.86 and a twelve month high of $46.06. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30. The company has a 50 day moving average of $43.35 and a two-hundred day moving average of $43.70.

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

Fortis Cuts Dividend

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

Fortis Company Profile

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.