Fortis (NYSE:FTS) Now Covered by Bank of America

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

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 4th. UBS Group raised shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $61.00.

Fortis Stock Performance

NYSE FTS opened at $44.68 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $43.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $40.72. Fortis has a 12-month low of $36.30 and a 12-month high of $45.83. The firm has a market cap of $22.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.26, a PEG ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.96 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that Fortis will post 2.32 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Fortis

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd grew its position in shares of Fortis by 9.0% in the 1st quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd now owns 3,340 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $132,000 after buying an additional 276 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its stake in Fortis by 53.6% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 346 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Fortis by 123.5% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 666 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 368 shares in the last quarter. Gold Investment Management Ltd. grew its holdings in Fortis by 0.5% in the first quarter. Gold Investment Management Ltd. now owns 81,179 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,208,000 after purchasing an additional 389 shares during the period. Finally, Nexus Investment Management ULC increased its stake in shares of Fortis by 0.5% during the second quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 83,765 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,253,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.