Fortis (NYSE:FTS) Stock Rating Lowered by Raymond James

Raymond James cut shares of Fortis (NYSE:FTS) from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. Raymond James also issued estimates for Fortis’ FY2024 earnings at $2.37 EPS, Q1 2025 earnings at $0.67 EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at $0.47 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $0.65 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $2.39 EPS.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on FTS. UBS Group raised Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. StockNews.com upgraded Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 4th. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Fortis in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They set an “underperform” rating for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce”.

Fortis Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of FTS opened at $44.18 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The business has a fifty day moving average of $44.45 and a 200 day moving average of $41.97. The company has a market cap of $21.97 billion, a PE ratio of 18.56, a P/E/G ratio of 3.98 and a beta of 0.47. Fortis has a 52-week low of $36.86 and a 52-week high of $46.06.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.26. The firm had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.01 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.06% and a return on equity of 7.03%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.63 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Fortis will post 2.32 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a $0.615 dividend. This represents a $2.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.57%. This is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. Fortis’s payout ratio is presently 76.05%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortis

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FTS. Toronto Dominion Bank raised its holdings in Fortis by 26.9% in the second quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 9,071,484 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $352,336,000 after purchasing an additional 1,920,728 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its position in shares of Fortis by 31.4% in the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,142,695 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,259,000 after buying an additional 512,103 shares during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Fortis by 15.7% during the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 3,747,036 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $170,230,000 after acquiring an additional 507,068 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its position in Fortis by 2.3% during the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 12,151,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $472,164,000 after acquiring an additional 270,417 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cidel Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake 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 in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortis Company Profile

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.