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

Bank of America started coverage on shares of Fortis (NYSE:FTS) in a research report sent to investors on Friday, StockNewsAPI reports. The firm issued an underperform rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on FTS. StockNews.com raised Fortis from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Sunday, August 4th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Fortis to a strong sell rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Reduce and an average price target of $61.00.

Fortis Stock Performance

NYSE:FTS opened at $44.68 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The firm has a market cap of $22.13 billion, a PE ratio of 19.26, a P/E/G ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.47. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $40.73. Fortis has a 1-year low of $36.30 and a 1-year high of $45.83.

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

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 20th were issued a $0.431 dividend. 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 3.86%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 73.28%.

Institutional Trading of Fortis

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FTS. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Fortis by 12.5% during the fourth 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 during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Fortis during the 4th quarter valued at $120,880,000. UBS Group AG boosted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 26,860 shares during the period. Trexquant Investment LP increased its holdings in Fortis by 269.3% in the 4th quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 53,116 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,185,000 after purchasing an additional 38,732 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Neuberger Berman Group LLC raised its position in Fortis by 17.8% in the fourth quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 43,526 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,799,000 after purchasing an additional 6,569 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.