Fortis (NYSE:FTS) Coverage Initiated at TD Securities

TD Securities assumed coverage on shares of Fortis (NYSE:FTS) in a research report report published on Friday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

FTS has been the topic of a number of other reports. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on Fortis from $69.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Desjardins started coverage on Fortis in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortis presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $72.00.

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of Fortis stock opened at $47.16 on Friday. Fortis has a one year low of $38.50 and a one year high of $50.06. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $47.96 and its 200 day moving average is $45.14. The stock has a market cap of $23.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.90, a P/E/G ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.76.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.42 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.08% and a net margin of 14.20%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.93 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortis will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortis

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 533,741 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $22,188,000 after purchasing an additional 36,587 shares during the last quarter. Versor Investments LP increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 84.5% in the fourth quarter. Versor Investments LP now owns 19,435 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $807,000 after purchasing an additional 8,900 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 12.7% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 14,544 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $605,000 after purchasing an additional 1,638 shares during the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 21.0% in the fourth quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 18,155 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $754,000 after purchasing an additional 3,152 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 17.5% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 73,385 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,051,000 after purchasing an additional 10,913 shares during the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.