Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 8,200,000 shares, a drop of 44.7% from the February 13th total of 14,830,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 605,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 13.6 days. Approximately 1.6% of the company's stock are sold short.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of Fortis stock traded up $0.37 during trading on Monday, reaching $45.30. The company's stock had a trading volume of 340,874 shares, compared to its average volume of 561,249. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.63. The business's fifty day moving average price is $43.20 and its 200-day moving average price is $43.68. The firm has a market cap of $22.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.48. Fortis has a one year low of $36.86 and a one year high of $46.06.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.08 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.09% and a net margin of 14.12%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.72 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Fortis will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

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Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid a $0.4324 dividend. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.82%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. Fortis's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 72.03%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FTS. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Fortis by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,352,485 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $61,516,000 after acquiring an additional 73,682 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. lifted its position in Fortis by 11.3% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 153,325 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $6,974,000 after buying an additional 15,605 shares in the last quarter. Unigestion Holding SA bought a new stake in Fortis during the 3rd quarter worth about $2,830,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its position in Fortis by 15.7% during the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 3,747,036 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $170,230,000 after buying an additional 507,068 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Fortis by 847.9% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 181,586 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $7,548,000 after purchasing an additional 162,430 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Fortis in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. They issued a "hold" rating for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold".

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.