Brokerages Set Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Price Target at $72.00

Shares of Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus rating of "Reduce" from the six analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and four have given a hold recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $72.00.

A number of brokerages have recently commented on FTS. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Fortis from $69.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Desjardins started coverage on shares of Fortis in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. They set a "hold" rating for the company. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Fortis in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. They set a "hold" rating for the company.

Institutional Trading of Fortis

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Fortis in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,751,000. US Bancorp DE increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 12.7% in the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 14,544 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $605,000 after acquiring an additional 1,638 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 7.4% in the 4th 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 period. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in Fortis by 8.1% in the 4th quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 18,584 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $773,000 after buying an additional 1,387 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its position in Fortis by 135.0% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 7,542 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $313,000 after buying an additional 4,332 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company's stock.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of FTS traded down $0.27 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $48.16. The stock had a trading volume of 378,294 shares, compared to its average volume of 614,296. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.63. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $47.54 and a 200 day moving average price of $44.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.41, a PEG ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.50. Fortis has a fifty-two week low of $38.15 and a fifty-two week high of $50.06.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.42 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.12% and a return on equity of 7.09%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.93 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate 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.