Brokers Set Expectations for Fortis’ Q4 Earnings (NYSE:FTS)

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) – Equities researchers at National Bank Financial issued their Q4 2024 earnings estimates for shares of Fortis in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, January 28th. National Bank Financial analyst P. Kenny anticipates that the utilities provider will post earnings of $0.57 per share for the quarter. The consensus estimate for Fortis’ current full-year earnings is $2.29 per share.

Separately, Raymond James lowered Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th.

Fortis Price Performance

Fortis stock opened at $42.28 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $42.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $43.29. Fortis has a 12 month low of $36.86 and a 12 month high of $46.06. The company has a market cap of $21.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.76, a PEG ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.26. Fortis had a net margin of 14.06% and a return on equity of 7.01%. The firm had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.01 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.63 earnings per share.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Fortis by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 489,343 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $19,006,000 after buying an additional 21,059 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp grew its stake in Fortis by 6.3% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 28,689 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,114,000 after acquiring an additional 1,691 shares in the last quarter. Code Waechter LLC bought a new stake in Fortis during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $838,000. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA purchased a new stake in Fortis in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $209,000. Finally, Creative Planning lifted its stake in Fortis by 21.1% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 52,266 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,375,000 after purchasing an additional 9,108 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.4382 per share. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. Fortis’s payout ratio is currently 79.41%.

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.