Raymond James Downgrades Fortis (NYSE:FTS) to Market Perform

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) was downgraded by equities researchers at Raymond James from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. Raymond James also issued estimates for Fortis’ FY2024 earnings at $2.37 EPS, Q1 2025 earnings at $0.67 EPS and Q2 2025 earnings at $0.47 EPS.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on FTS. StockNews.com upgraded Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 4th. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Fortis in a research report on Friday, September 20th. They set an “underperform” rating on the stock. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Reduce”.

Fortis Stock Up 0.6 %

FTS opened at $43.86 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $21.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.58, a PEG ratio of 3.87 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.69. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $44.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.92. Fortis has a twelve month low of $36.86 and a twelve month high of $46.06.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.26. Fortis had a net margin of 13.90% and a return on equity of 7.04%. The firm had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.01 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.63 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Fortis will post 2.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Fortis by 1.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,072,102 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $793,049,000 after buying an additional 229,972 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 12,151,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $472,164,000 after purchasing an additional 270,417 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 9,199,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $357,291,000 after purchasing an additional 95,813 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its position in shares of Fortis by 26.9% in the 2nd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 9,071,484 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $352,336,000 after purchasing an additional 1,920,728 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in Fortis by 4.2% in the second quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 3,938,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $152,955,000 after purchasing an additional 158,178 shares during the last quarter. 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.