Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.62

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, September 26th,Zacks Dividends reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a dividend of 0.615 per share by the utilities provider on Sunday, December 1st. This represents a $2.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43.

Fortis has raised its dividend payment by an average of 5.7% per year over the last three years. Fortis has a payout ratio of 72.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Fortis to earn $2.41 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 73.4%.

Fortis Stock Performance

NYSE:FTS opened at $44.17 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. Fortis has a fifty-two week low of $36.86 and a fifty-two week high of $46.06. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $44.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.14. The stock has a market cap of $21.97 billion, a PE ratio of 18.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.47.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.01 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.06% and a return on equity of 7.03%. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.63 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Fortis will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have weighed in on FTS shares. Raymond James lowered Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. UBS Group raised shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 4th. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on shares of Fortis in a research report on Friday, September 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating on the stock. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have given a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortis 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.