Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Short Interest Update

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,310,000 shares, a growth of 23.1% from the March 31st total of 6,750,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 686,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 12.1 days. Currently, 1.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in shares of Fortis in the 3rd quarter worth $149,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased 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 worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 256 shares in the last quarter. QV Investors Inc. increased its stake in Fortis by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. QV Investors Inc. now owns 1,074,643 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $44,631,000 after purchasing an additional 60,380 shares in the last quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Fortis by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,087 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $211,000 after buying an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Code Waechter LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Code Waechter LLC now owns 18,708 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $778,000 after buying an additional 277 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of FTS stock opened at $48.55 on Friday. Fortis has a 1 year low of $38.15 and a 1 year high of $49.65. 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 is $45.96 and its 200-day moving average is $44.17. The stock has a market cap of $24.35 billion, a PE ratio of 20.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.50.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly 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 net margin of 14.12% and a return on equity of 7.09%. The firm had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.08 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.72 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Fortis will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 3.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. Fortis’s payout ratio is 72.03%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Fortis in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently 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.