Raymond James Issues Positive Forecast for Fortis Earnings

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) – Equities researchers at Raymond James boosted their Q1 2025 earnings per share estimates for Fortis in a research report issued on Monday, February 17th. Raymond James analyst T. Genzebu now anticipates that the utilities provider will earn $0.66 per share for the quarter, up from their previous forecast of $0.64. Raymond James has a “Market Perform” rating on the stock. The consensus estimate for Fortis’ current full-year earnings is $2.35 per share. Raymond James also issued estimates for Fortis’ Q2 2025 earnings at $0.48 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $0.64 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $2.34 EPS.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released 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. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.19% and a net margin of 14.12%. The firm had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.08 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.72 earnings per share.

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Fortis in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold”.

Fortis Stock Performance

Fortis stock opened at $43.95 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $42.34 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $43.57. Fortis has a 52-week low of $36.86 and a 52-week high of $46.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.62, a P/E/G ratio of 4.05 and a beta of 0.50.

Institutional Trading of Fortis

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FTS. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Fortis in the fourth quarter valued at $182,242,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Fortis by 77.1% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,257,486 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $180,686,000 after buying an additional 1,853,082 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in shares of Fortis by 42.1% in the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,443,333 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $184,878,000 after buying an additional 1,316,394 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in shares of Fortis by 21.8% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 5,190,336 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $235,839,000 after buying an additional 930,331 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its holdings in Fortis by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 6,218,116 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $258,068,000 after acquiring an additional 612,395 shares during the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid a $0.4324 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.94%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 80.08%.

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.