Fortis (NYSE:FTS) Lowered to “Sell” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Fortis (NYSE:FTS) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report issued on Saturday morning.

Fortis Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of FTS stock opened at $41.02 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $20.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.68, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.45. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $39.65 and a 200-day moving average of $39.58. The company has a current ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. Fortis has a 1-year low of $36.30 and a 1-year high of $43.40.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.04. Fortis had a net margin of 13.66% and a return on equity of 7.02%. The business had revenue of $2.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.43 billion. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Fortis will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortis

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Fortis by 1.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,072,102 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $793,049,000 after acquiring an additional 229,972 shares during the period. FIL Ltd grew its position in Fortis by 33.8% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 19,477,406 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $801,263,000 after purchasing an additional 4,924,031 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc increased its stake in Fortis by 22.3% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 13,380,619 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $553,145,000 after purchasing an additional 2,438,223 shares in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in Fortis by 0.9% during the first quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 9,103,234 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $359,669,000 after buying an additional 79,519 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its holdings in Fortis by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 8,080,594 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $332,583,000 after buying an additional 561,176 shares during the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.