Fortis (NYSE:FTS) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.02 EPS

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02, Zacks reports. The firm had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.08 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.06% and a return on equity of 7.01%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.72 earnings per share.

Fortis Trading Up 1.1 %

Fortis stock opened at $44.81 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $42.32 and its 200-day moving average is $43.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.74. Fortis has a 1 year low of $36.86 and a 1 year high of $46.06. The company has a market cap of $22.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.83, a PEG ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.50.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a $0.4324 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.86%. Fortis’s payout ratio is currently 79.41%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on FTS. Raymond James cut shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Fortis in a report on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the stock. 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.