Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Short Interest Update

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 7,880,000 shares, a decline of 6.9% from the December 15th total of 8,460,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 599,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 13.1 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Raymond James lowered shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortis

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its position in Fortis by 26.9% during the second quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 9,071,484 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $352,336,000 after purchasing an additional 1,920,728 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI raised its stake in Fortis by 21.8% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 5,190,336 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $235,839,000 after purchasing an additional 930,331 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its holdings in shares of Fortis by 31.4% during the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,142,695 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,259,000 after buying an additional 512,103 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its position in shares of Fortis by 15.7% in the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 3,747,036 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $170,230,000 after buying an additional 507,068 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Europe London LLP lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 413.6% during the third quarter. Point72 Europe London LLP now owns 395,474 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $17,973,000 after buying an additional 318,474 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of Fortis stock traded up $0.23 during trading on Monday, reaching $41.98. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 354,450 shares, compared to its average volume of 305,819. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $42.92 and a 200-day moving average price of $43.14. Fortis has a 12-month low of $36.86 and a 12-month high of $46.06. The company has a market capitalization of $20.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.01 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.06% and a return on equity of 7.01%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.63 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortis will post 2.3 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a $0.4382 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.18%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 79.41%.

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.