Raymond James Issues Pessimistic Outlook for Fortis Earnings

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) – Investment analysts at Raymond James lowered their FY2024 EPS estimates for shares of Fortis in a research note issued on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James analyst T. Genzebu now anticipates that the utilities provider will post earnings per share of $2.26 for the year, down from their previous forecast of $2.37. Raymond James has a “Market Perform” rating on the stock. The consensus estimate for Fortis’ current full-year earnings is $2.27 per share.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.26. Fortis had a net margin of 14.06% and a return on equity of 7.01%. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.01 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.63 EPS.

Fortis Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE FTS opened at $42.75 on Monday. Fortis has a one year low of $36.86 and a one year high of $46.06. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $43.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.34 billion, a PE ratio of 17.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 0.50.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a $0.4382 dividend. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 79.41%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,352,485 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $61,516,000 after buying an additional 73,682 shares during the period. Intact Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Fortis by 163.8% in the 3rd quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 227,700 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $10,347,000 after purchasing an additional 141,400 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. lifted its position in Fortis by 11.3% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 153,325 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,974,000 after purchasing an additional 15,605 shares during the last quarter. Code Waechter LLC bought a new stake in Fortis in the 3rd quarter valued at about $838,000. Finally, Unigestion Holding SA bought a new stake in Fortis in the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,830,000. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.