Fortis (NYSE:FTS) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.26 EPS

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The utilities provider reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.26, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.01 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 13.90% and a return on equity of 7.04%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.63 earnings per share.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE FTS traded up $0.26 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $43.84. 327,544 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 700,482. Fortis has a twelve month low of $36.86 and a twelve month high of $46.06. The firm has a market cap of $21.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.58, a PEG ratio of 3.87 and a beta of 0.47. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $44.45 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.58.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a $0.615 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $2.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.61%. This is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 72.46%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group upgraded Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Raymond James cut shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com raised shares of Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 4th. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Fortis in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They set an “underperform” rating on the stock. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have given a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Reduce”.

Fortis Company Profile

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.