Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) has been given an average rating of “Hold” by the nine analysts that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have assigned a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$58.75.

FTS has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$52.00 to C$53.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Royal Bank of Canada raised 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. National Bankshares upped their price objective on Fortis from C$55.00 to C$56.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Fortis from C$56.00 to C$59.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Fortis from C$56.00 to C$63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday.

Fortis Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of FTS stock opened at C$59.33 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of C$29.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.22. 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 has a fifty-two week low of C$49.82 and a fifty-two week high of C$60.37. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of C$55.81 and a 200-day simple moving average of C$54.44.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported C$0.67 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of C$0.65 by C$0.02. The firm had revenue of C$2.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of C$2.71 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.35% and a return on equity of 7.44%. On average, analysts forecast that Fortis will post 3.2312668 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Sunday, September 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 20th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.98%. Fortis’s payout ratio is currently 73.98%.

Insider Activity at Fortis

In related news, Senior Officer James Reid purchased 700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 19th. The shares were bought at an average price of C$52.37 per share, with a total value of C$36,659.00. 0.04% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.