Scotiabank Issues Pessimistic Estimate for Fortis Earnings

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS - Free Report) - Investment analysts at Scotiabank cut their FY2024 earnings per share estimates for shares of Fortis in a research note issued on Wednesday, January 8th. Scotiabank analyst R. Hope now anticipates that the utilities provider will post earnings of $2.27 per share for the year, down from their prior estimate of $2.40. The consensus estimate for Fortis' current full-year earnings is $2.32 per share. Scotiabank also issued estimates for Fortis' FY2025 earnings at $2.33 EPS.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.01 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.63 earnings per share.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on FTS. Raymond James downgraded Fortis from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Bank of America assumed coverage on Fortis in a research report on Friday, September 20th. They set an "underperform" rating on the stock.

Fortis Stock Down 2.9 %

Shares of Fortis stock opened at $40.79 on Monday. Fortis has a twelve month low of $36.86 and a twelve month high of $46.06. The stock has a market cap of $20.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.87 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $43.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $43.06.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BNP Paribas Financial Markets acquired a new position in shares of Fortis in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Fortis by 34.1% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,006 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 256 shares during the last quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC increased its stake 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 worth $83,000 after buying an additional 630 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in Fortis in the third quarter valued at $149,000. Finally, CHICAGO TRUST Co NA bought a new position in Fortis during the 3rd quarter valued at $209,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company's stock.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a $0.4382 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.30%. Fortis's dividend payout ratio is currently 71.43%.

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.