Fortis (NYSE:FTS) Rating Increased to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortis (NYSE:FTS) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Friday morning.

Fortis Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE:FTS opened at $40.57 on Friday. Fortis has a twelve month low of $36.30 and a twelve month high of $43.78. The company has a quick ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $39.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $39.60. The company has a market cap of $20.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.45.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.04. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.02% and a net margin of 13.66%. The company had revenue of $2.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.43 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Fortis will post 2.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Cidel Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Fortis by 42.6% in the second quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. now owns 782,827 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,418,000 after acquiring an additional 233,743 shares during the last quarter. Washington Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Fortis during the second quarter valued at about $638,000. Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 13.4% during the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 33,670 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,308,000 after purchasing an additional 3,967 shares in the last quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 0.9% during the second quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. now owns 224,968 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,738,000 after purchasing an additional 2,003 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Value Partners Investments Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Fortis by 1.6% during the second quarter. Value Partners Investments Inc. now owns 134,740 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,233,000 after purchasing an additional 2,105 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

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.