Fortis (NYSE:FTS) Earns Underperform Rating from Analysts at Bank of America

Investment analysts at Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Fortis (NYSE:FTS) in a research note issued to investors on Friday, StockNewsAPI reports. The firm set an “underperform” rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 4th. UBS Group raised shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have given a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $49.00.

Fortis Trading Down 0.6 %

FTS opened at $44.62 on Friday. 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 stock’s fifty day moving average is $42.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $40.67. The company has a market capitalization of $22.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.23, a PEG ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.47. Fortis has a 52 week low of $36.30 and a 52 week high of $45.83.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.02. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.04% and a net margin of 13.90%. The firm had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.96 billion. Analysts forecast that Fortis will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Fortis by 123.5% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 666 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 368 shares in the last quarter. Ridgewood Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortis during the second quarter valued at about $32,000. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Fortis by 53.6% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 346 shares during the last quarter. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. acquired a new stake in Fortis in the 1st quarter worth approximately $60,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Fortis in the 1st quarter worth approximately $69,000. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

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.