Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Short Interest Update

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) saw a large decrease in short interest in October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 7,220,000 shares, a decrease of 10.1% from the September 30th total of 8,030,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 615,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 11.7 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTS has been the topic of several research reports. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Fortis in a report on Friday, September 20th. They set an "underperform" rating on the stock. UBS Group raised Fortis to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Fortis from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Sunday, August 4th.

Fortis Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE FTS traded down $0.03 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $43.25. 604,641 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 698,476. Fortis has a 12 month low of $36.86 and a 12 month high of $46.06. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $44.51 and a 200-day moving average price of $41.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The company has a market cap of $21.41 billion, a PE ratio of 18.66, a PEG ratio of 3.95 and a beta of 0.47.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.96 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.04% and a net margin of 13.90%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Fortis will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.615 per share. This is an increase from Fortis's previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $2.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.69%. Fortis's payout ratio is 78.02%.

Institutional Trading of Fortis

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of FTS. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Fortis by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 489,343 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $19,006,000 after purchasing an additional 21,059 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 3,938,001 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $152,955,000 after purchasing an additional 158,178 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 10.8% during the 2nd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 858,512 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $33,380,000 after purchasing an additional 83,858 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its holdings in Fortis by 11.1% during the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 300,509 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $11,803,000 after buying an additional 30,103 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC grew its position in Fortis by 56.4% during the second quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 48,399 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,880,000 after buying an additional 17,450 shares during the period. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.