GAMMA Investing LLC Purchases New Position in Fortis (NYSE:FTS)

GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 18,961 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $864,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTS. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in Fortis by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 149,151 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $6,194,000 after acquiring an additional 12,430 shares during the last quarter. Cumberland Partners Ltd boosted its stake in Fortis by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. Cumberland Partners Ltd now owns 27,900 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,159,000 after acquiring an additional 1,700 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in 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 valued at $22,188,000 after acquiring an additional 36,587 shares during the last quarter. K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc boosted its stake in Fortis by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc now owns 28,820 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,192,000 after acquiring an additional 920 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Versor Investments LP boosted its stake in Fortis by 84.5% in the fourth quarter. Versor Investments LP now owns 19,435 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $807,000 after acquiring an additional 8,900 shares during the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on FTS shares. Desjardins started coverage on shares of Fortis in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. They issued a "hold" rating on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Fortis from $69.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have assigned a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $72.00.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of FTS stock traded down $0.34 during trading on Friday, reaching $46.99. 636,476 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 610,939. The company has a market capitalization of $23.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.83, a PEG ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The firm's 50-day moving average is $48.02 and its 200 day moving average is $45.05. Fortis has a 1 year low of $38.50 and a 1 year high of $50.06.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 net margin of 14.20% and a return on equity of 7.08%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.93 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Fortis will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

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.