Short Interest in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Decreases By 10.1%

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 7,220,000 shares, a drop of 10.1% from the September 30th total of 8,030,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 615,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 11.7 days.

Institutional Trading of Fortis

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of FTS. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortis by 123.5% in the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 666 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 368 shares during the period. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortis in the second quarter worth approximately $32,000. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Fortis by 53.6% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 346 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortis in the first quarter worth approximately $69,000. Finally, Cromwell Holdings LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortis by 52.2% in the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,000 after purchasing an additional 630 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Fortis in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating for the company. StockNews.com raised Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 4th. Finally, UBS Group raised Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of FTS traded up $0.30 on Thursday, reaching $43.53. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 258,623 shares, compared to its average volume of 697,156. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $44.51 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $41.73. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $21.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.64, a PEG ratio of 3.95 and a beta of 0.47. Fortis has a 12-month low of $36.86 and a 12-month high of $46.06.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.02. Fortis had a net margin of 13.90% and a return on equity of 7.04%. The business had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.96 billion. Research analysts forecast that Fortis will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a dividend of $0.615 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $2.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.65%. Fortis’s payout ratio is 78.02%.

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.