Fortis (NYSE:FTS) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Fortis (NYSE:FTS) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Saturday.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Scotiabank reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a research report on Friday, February 13th. National Bank Financial restated a “sector perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Fortis in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. TD Securities reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Fortis in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $72.00.

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:FTS opened at $57.05 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $28.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.38, a P/E/G ratio of 4.38 and a beta of 0.49. Fortis has a 1 year low of $43.28 and a 1 year high of $57.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $53.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $51.73.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The utilities provider reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.54 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.24% and a net margin of 14.24%.During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.83 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Fortis will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 15th will be given a $0.64 dividend. This represents a $2.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 15th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 76.64%.

Institutional Trading of Fortis

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTS. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Fortis by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,129,958 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,254,541,000 after buying an additional 536,118 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 19,898,613 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,034,545,000 after acquiring an additional 1,666,481 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 0.4% in the third quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 13,531,955 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $686,518,000 after acquiring an additional 57,447 shares during the last quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. increased its position in Fortis by 3.7% during the third quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 9,163,354 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $461,748,000 after acquiring an additional 326,212 shares during the period. Finally, Cibc World Market Inc. raised its stake in Fortis by 8.6% during the 4th quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 8,564,134 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $445,335,000 after purchasing an additional 677,226 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

About Fortis

Fortis Inc is a Canadian diversified electric and gas utility holding company headquartered in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. Through a portfolio of regulated utility subsidiaries, the company develops, owns and operates electricity and natural gas transmission, distribution and generation assets. Fortis serves customers across multiple jurisdictions in Canada, the United States and the Caribbean, focusing on the delivery of safe, reliable energy to residential, commercial and industrial users.

The company’s core activities include operation and maintenance of transmission and distribution networks, ownership of generation facilities, and investment in grid modernization and system resilience.