Fortis (NYSE:FTS) Upgraded at StockNews.com

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) was upgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Friday.

Fortis Stock Down 0.4 %

FTS stock opened at $40.50 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $20.06 billion, a PE ratio of 17.46, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 0.60. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $39.66 and its 200-day moving average price is $39.61. Fortis has a one year low of $36.30 and a one year high of $43.84.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.43 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 13.66% and a return on equity of 7.02%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Fortis will post 2.33 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Fortis

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Fortis by 1.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,072,102 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $793,049,000 after purchasing an additional 229,972 shares during the period. FIL Ltd raised its position in Fortis by 33.8% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 19,477,406 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $801,263,000 after purchasing an additional 4,924,031 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc raised its position in Fortis by 22.3% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 13,380,619 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $553,145,000 after purchasing an additional 2,438,223 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its position in Fortis by 0.9% in the first quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 9,103,234 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $359,669,000 after purchasing an additional 79,519 shares during the period. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its position in Fortis by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 8,080,594 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $332,583,000 after purchasing an additional 561,176 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.