Fortis (NYSE:FTS) Coverage Initiated at Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Fortis (NYSE:FTS) in a research report released on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Separately, Raymond James lowered shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis has an average rating of “Hold”.

Fortis Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of FTS opened at $44.81 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $42.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $43.51. The stock has a market cap of $22.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.50. Fortis has a 12 month low of $36.86 and a 12 month high of $46.06.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.01% and a net margin of 14.06%. The business had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.08 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.72 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Fortis will post 2.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.4324 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.86%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is 79.41%.

Institutional Trading of Fortis

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in Fortis by 724.3% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 577 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 507 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortis in the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Fortis by 34.1% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,006 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 256 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets bought a new stake in shares of Fortis during the third quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Finally, Cromwell Holdings LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 52.2% in the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $83,000 after purchasing an additional 630 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

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.