Fortis (TSE:FTS) Price Target Increased to C$59.00 by Analysts at BMO Capital Markets

Fortis (TSE:FTS) had its price target raised by BMO Capital Markets from C$58.50 to C$59.00 in a report issued on Thursday, BayStreet.CA reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Fortis from C$56.00 to C$59.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. CIBC upped their target price on shares of Fortis from C$56.00 to C$57.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Raymond James dropped their target price on shares of Fortis from C$62.00 to C$59.00 in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of Fortis from C$60.00 to C$56.00 and set a sector perform rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Fortis from C$52.00 to C$53.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of C$58.17.

Fortis Stock Up 1.2 %

TSE FTS traded up C$0.68 on Thursday, reaching C$58.58. The company had a trading volume of 148,221 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,593,897. The firm has a market capitalization of C$28.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.89, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.60. Fortis has a 1-year low of C$49.82 and a 1-year high of C$58.73. The company’s fifty day moving average is C$54.46 and its 200-day moving average is C$53.94.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The company reported C$0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of C$0.89 by C$0.04. Fortis had a net margin of 14.11% and a return on equity of 7.38%. The firm had revenue of C$3.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of C$3.34 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that Fortis will post 3.2075145 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, September 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.03%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 20th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is presently 75.40%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Senior Officer James Reid purchased 700 shares of Fortis stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 19th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of C$52.37 per share, for a total transaction of C$36,659.00. Corporate insiders own 0.04% 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.