Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the nine analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$59.10.

A number of analysts recently issued reports on FTS shares. Raymond James boosted their price target on Fortis from C$59.00 to C$61.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Fortis from C$61.00 to C$62.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Fortis from C$56.00 to C$63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Fortis from C$59.00 to C$61.00 in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, CIBC raised their target price on shares of Fortis from C$57.00 to C$59.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st.

Fortis Stock Performance

FTS stock opened at C$61.84 on Wednesday. Fortis has a twelve month low of C$49.82 and a twelve month high of C$61.94. The firm has a market cap of C$30.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.39, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.22. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is C$58.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$55.31. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.59.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported C$0.67 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of C$0.65 by C$0.02. The company had revenue of C$2.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of C$2.71 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.35% and a return on equity of 7.44%. Analysts predict that Fortis will post 3.3416115 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Sunday, September 1st were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 20th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.82%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is presently 73.98%.

Insider Transactions at Fortis

In other news, Senior Officer James Reid sold 19,972 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of C$59.46, for a total transaction of C$1,187,493.18. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Company Profile

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.