Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Short Interest Down 44.7% in February

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 8,200,000 shares, a decrease of 44.7% from the February 13th total of 14,830,000 shares. Approximately 1.6% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 605,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 13.6 days.

Fortis Stock Up 0.1 %

Fortis stock traded up $0.07 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $44.92. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 542,162 shares, compared to its average volume of 563,503. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $43.20 and its 200 day moving average is $43.68. The company has a market cap of $22.43 billion, a PE ratio of 19.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.63. Fortis has a 52-week low of $36.86 and a 52-week high of $46.06.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.08 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.09% and a net margin of 14.12%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.72 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Fortis will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid a $0.4324 dividend. This represents a $1.73 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 72.03%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortis

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FTS. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 11.9% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 54,149 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,461,000 after purchasing an additional 5,750 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,490,882 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $67,848,000 after purchasing an additional 11,500 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 15.7% during the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 3,747,036 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $170,230,000 after purchasing an additional 507,068 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,352,485 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $61,516,000 after purchasing an additional 73,682 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 11.3% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 153,325 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,974,000 after acquiring an additional 15,605 shares during the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Fortis in a report on Thursday, February 13th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Fortis currently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

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.