Fortis $FTS Shares Bought by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in shares of Fortis (NYSE:FTS) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,954,579 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 90,856 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Fortis were worth $309,966,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of FTS. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 4,662.5% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 986,548 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $51,244,000 after acquiring an additional 965,833 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 60.7% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,508,277 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $127,270,000 after acquiring an additional 947,079 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,593,840 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,196,727,000 after acquiring an additional 568,326 shares in the last quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 9,163,354 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $461,748,000 after acquiring an additional 326,212 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Coleford Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Fortis during the 3rd quarter worth $10,516,000. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Fortis in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Fortis in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Barclays reduced their price objective on Fortis from $62.00 to $61.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Scotiabank reissued a “sector perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $61.00.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of Fortis stock opened at $56.65 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $28.84 billion, a PE ratio of 23.03 and a beta of 0.45. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $56.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $54.40. The company has a quick ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. Fortis has a 12 month low of $46.46 and a 12 month high of $58.78.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.72 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.45 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.25% and a net margin of 14.21%.During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.00 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortis will post 2.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Company Profile

Fortis Inc is a Canadian diversified electric and gas utility holding company headquartered in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. Through a portfolio of regulated utility subsidiaries, the company develops, owns and operates electricity and natural gas transmission, distribution and generation assets. Fortis serves customers across multiple jurisdictions in Canada, the United States and the Caribbean, focusing on the delivery of safe, reliable energy to residential, commercial and industrial users.

The company’s core activities include operation and maintenance of transmission and distribution networks, ownership of generation facilities, and investment in grid modernization and system resilience.