Fortis (TSE:FTS) Sets New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) shares reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as C$62.32 and last traded at C$62.24, with a volume of 548728 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at C$61.76.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on FTS. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Fortis from C$52.00 to C$53.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Fortis from C$62.00 to C$65.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. UBS Group raised shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Scotiabank raised 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 research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Fortis from C$59.00 to C$61.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$60.40.

Fortis Trading Up 0.4 %

The company has a market cap of C$30.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.36, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.23. The business has a fifty day moving average price of C$60.28 and a 200-day moving average price of C$56.43. 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 data on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported C$0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of C$0.65 by C$0.02. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.44% and a net margin of 14.35%. The firm had revenue of C$2.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of C$2.71 billion. On average, analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 3.3419913 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.36%. Fortis’s payout ratio is 77.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortis

In other Fortis news, Senior Officer James Reid sold 19,972 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 23rd. The stock was 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.

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.