Fortis (NYSE:FTS) Research Coverage Started at Bank of America

Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Fortis (NYSE:FTS) in a research note released on Friday morning, StockNewsAPI reports. The firm issued an underperform rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

FTS has been the subject of a number of other reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Fortis from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Sunday, August 4th. UBS Group raised shares of Fortis to a strong sell rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Reduce and an average target price of $61.00.

Fortis Trading Up 0.7 %

Fortis stock opened at $45.01 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $43.19 and its 200-day moving average is $40.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.69. Fortis has a 1 year low of $36.30 and a 1 year high of $45.83. The company has a market cap of $22.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.40, a PEG ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.47.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.96 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 13.90% and a return on equity of 7.04%. On average, equities analysts expect that Fortis will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 20th were given a dividend of $0.431 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 20th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.83%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 73.28%.

Institutional Trading of Fortis

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FTS. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Fortis by 12.5% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 490,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $20,185,000 after buying an additional 54,417 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Fortis during the 4th quarter worth about $120,880,000. UBS Group AG raised its position in shares of Fortis by 16.0% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 194,666 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,007,000 after buying an additional 26,860 shares in the last quarter. Trexquant Investment LP raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 269.3% in the 4th quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 53,116 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,185,000 after purchasing an additional 38,732 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Neuberger Berman Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 17.8% in the 4th quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 43,526 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,799,000 after purchasing an additional 6,569 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.