Short Interest in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Rises By 27.2%

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 13,440,000 shares, a growth of 27.2% from the July 15th total of 10,570,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 622,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 21.6 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. APG Asset Management N.V. increased its holdings in Fortis by 16.1% in the second quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 225,442 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,173,000 after buying an additional 31,307 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Europe London LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Fortis in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,991,000. Toronto Dominion Bank grew its position in shares of Fortis by 26.9% in the second quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 9,071,484 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $352,336,000 after purchasing an additional 1,920,728 shares during the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp grew its position in shares of Fortis by 186.5% in the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 68,928 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,679,000 after purchasing an additional 44,866 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its position in shares of Fortis by 0.6% in the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 3,372,362 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $131,040,000 after purchasing an additional 20,085 shares during the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com raised shares of Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 4th.

Fortis Price Performance

Fortis stock traded up $0.16 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $43.77. The company had a trading volume of 363,246 shares, compared to its average volume of 733,805. Fortis has a 1 year low of $36.30 and a 1 year high of $43.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.52. The company has a market capitalization of $21.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.87, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.45. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $39.81.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 20th will be issued a $0.431 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 20th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.94%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 73.28%.

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.