Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Short Interest Down 31.1% in March

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,650,000 shares, a decrease of 31.1% from the February 28th total of 8,200,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 574,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 9.8 days. Currently, 1.1% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortis

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of FTS. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in Fortis by 34.1% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,006 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 256 shares in the last quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Fortis by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,087 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $211,000 after buying an additional 267 shares during the period. Code Waechter LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fortis by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Code Waechter LLC now owns 18,708 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $778,000 after purchasing an additional 277 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its position in shares of Fortis by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 9,515 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $396,000 after acquiring an additional 277 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. increased its holdings in Fortis by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 6,265 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $260,000 after purchasing an additional 282 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Stock Up 0.6 %

FTS traded up $0.27 on Monday, reaching $45.57. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 654,321 shares, compared to its average volume of 625,739. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $43.99 and a two-hundred day moving average of $43.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30. Fortis has a fifty-two week low of $36.86 and a fifty-two week high of $47.06. The company has a market capitalization of $22.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.31, a P/E/G ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.48.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. Fortis had a net margin of 14.12% and a return on equity of 7.09%. The business had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.08 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.72 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Fortis will post 2.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 72.03%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.