Fortis (NYSE:FTS) Sees Strong Trading Volume – Here’s Why

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) shares saw an uptick in trading volume on Friday . 5,839,703 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 708% from the previous session’s volume of 722,727 shares.The stock last traded at $44.02 and had previously closed at $44.28.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FTS has been the topic of a number of research reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 4th. UBS Group raised shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Fortis in a research report on Friday, September 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating for the company. Finally, Raymond James lowered shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have issued a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Reduce”.

Fortis Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.69. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $44.42 and its 200 day moving average price is $42.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.47.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.26. The firm had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.01 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.06% and a return on equity of 7.03%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.63 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.615 per share. This represents a $2.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.59%. This is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. Fortis’s payout ratio is presently 71.85%.

Institutional Trading of Fortis

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted 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 during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 3,938,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $152,955,000 after acquiring an additional 158,178 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 10.8% in the 2nd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 858,512 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $33,380,000 after acquiring an additional 83,858 shares during the period. Intact Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 163.8% in the 3rd quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 227,700 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $10,347,000 after acquiring an additional 141,400 shares during the period. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 11.1% in the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 300,509 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,803,000 after purchasing an additional 30,103 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.