Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Short Interest Down 44.7% in February

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) saw a large decrease in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 8,200,000 shares, a decrease of 44.7% from the February 13th total of 14,830,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 605,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 13.6 days. Approximately 1.6% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Fortis in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold”.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortis

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Natixis Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 11.9% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 54,149 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,461,000 after purchasing an additional 5,750 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 0.8% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,490,882 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $67,848,000 after purchasing an additional 11,500 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 15.7% in the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 3,747,036 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $170,230,000 after purchasing an additional 507,068 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Fortis by 5.8% during the third 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. boosted its stake in Fortis by 11.3% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 153,325 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,974,000 after buying an additional 15,605 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of FTS stock traded up $0.07 on Friday, hitting $44.92. 542,162 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 563,503. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The company has a market capitalization of $22.43 billion, a PE ratio of 19.03, a PEG ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.48. Fortis has a 1-year low of $36.86 and a 1-year high of $46.06. The company’s fifty day moving average is $43.20 and its 200 day moving average is $43.68.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.09% and a net margin of 14.12%. The business had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.08 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.72 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Fortis will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a $0.4324 dividend. This represents a $1.73 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is presently 72.03%.

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.