Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eight ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$57.63.

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on FTS shares. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Fortis from C$58.00 to C$58.50 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Raymond James decreased their target price on Fortis from C$62.00 to C$59.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. CIBC increased their target price on Fortis from C$56.00 to C$57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Fortis from C$56.00 to C$59.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Fortis from C$52.00 to C$53.00 in a report on Thursday.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Senior Officer James Reid acquired 700 shares of Fortis stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 19th. The stock was bought at an average price of C$52.37 per share, for a total transaction of C$36,659.00. 0.04% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of TSE FTS opened at C$56.73 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of C$27.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.12, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.18. Fortis has a 12 month low of C$49.82 and a 12 month high of C$57.73. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is C$54.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$53.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.89, a current ratio of 0.60 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The company reported C$0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of C$0.89 by C$0.04. The business had revenue of C$3.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of C$3.34 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.11% and a return on equity of 7.38%. Analysts expect that Fortis will post 3.2075145 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Saturday, June 1st were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.16%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 16th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is presently 75.40%.

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.