Fortis (NYSE:FTS) Raised to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortis (NYSE:FTS) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report published on Tuesday.

Fortis Trading Up 0.3 %

FTS opened at $39.95 on Tuesday. Fortis has a one year low of $36.30 and a one year high of $43.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.22, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.45. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $39.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 0.60 and a quick ratio of 0.52.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.04. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.02% and a net margin of 13.66%. The firm had revenue of $2.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.43 billion. Analysts predict that Fortis will post 2.33 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FTS. Clearbridge Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortis in the 4th quarter worth approximately $119,043,000. TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 22.3% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 13,380,619 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $553,145,000 after buying an additional 2,438,223 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,421,010 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $737,804,000 after buying an additional 353,112 shares during the last quarter. Gold Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Fortis in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,324,000. Finally, Canoe Financial LP grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 218.3% in the 4th quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 199,031 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,186,000 after buying an additional 136,495 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

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.