Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Short Interest Update

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) was the recipient 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 daily volume of 599,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 13.1 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Institutional Trading of Fortis

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in Fortis by 6.6% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 87,075 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,384,000 after buying an additional 5,408 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Fortis by 35.3% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 179,040 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,954,000 after acquiring an additional 46,722 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 4.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 489,343 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $19,006,000 after acquiring an additional 21,059 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 22.9% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 14,835 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $576,000 after purchasing an additional 2,768 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its position 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 valued at $83,259,000 after purchasing an additional 512,103 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortis Stock Up 0.5 %

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

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.26. The firm 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 last year, the firm earned $0.63 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Fortis will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

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