Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Short Interest Up 23.1% in April

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,310,000 shares, an increase of 23.1% from the March 31st total of 6,750,000 shares. Approximately 1.7% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 686,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 12.1 days.

Institutional Trading of Fortis

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Fortis by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,722,993 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $902,656,000 after purchasing an additional 364,391 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 4.9% during the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 12,870,736 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $586,192,000 after buying an additional 604,615 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. now owns 12,266,121 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $509,425,000 after acquiring an additional 173,226 shares during the last quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. grew its holdings in Fortis by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 9,148,037 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $379,614,000 after acquiring an additional 329,767 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank raised its position in shares of Fortis by 10.9% during the fourth quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 6,218,116 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $258,068,000 after acquiring an additional 612,395 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company's stock.

Fortis Stock Performance

NYSE FTS traded down $0.56 on Thursday, hitting $49.20. 129,223 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 616,082. The company has a market capitalization of $24.68 billion, a PE ratio of 20.85, a P/E/G ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.50. The business's fifty day moving average is $46.29 and its 200 day moving average is $44.27. Fortis has a 52 week low of $38.15 and a 52 week high of $50.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.63.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.01. The firm 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 previous year, the business posted $0.93 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Fortis will post 2.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.4324 per share. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. Fortis's dividend payout ratio is currently 72.03%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on FTS shares. Desjardins started coverage on shares of Fortis in a report on Tuesday. They issued a "hold" rating for the company. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Fortis in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. They set a "hold" rating for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis presently has a consensus rating of "Hold".

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.