Fortis (NYSE:FTS) Raises Dividend to C$0.64 Per Share

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 17th will be paid a dividend of 0.64 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, December 1st. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 5.1%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 17th. This is a 43.9% increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44.

Fortis has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 0.0%per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 5 consecutive years. Fortis has a dividend payout ratio of 69.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Fortis to earn $2.47 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.77 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 71.7%.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of Fortis stock traded up $0.70 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $50.51. 828,172 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 600,671. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.58 and a quick ratio of 0.47. Fortis has a 1 year low of $40.32 and a 1 year high of $52.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.79, a PEG ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.50. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $50.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $49.01.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.91 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.48% and a return on equity of 7.24%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.67 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Fortis will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on FTS. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Fortis in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Scotiabank restated a “sector perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Zacks Research cut Fortis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $72.00.

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.