Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Reduce” from Brokerages

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) has received a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” from the nine ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and six have issued a hold recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is C$60.89.

FTS has been the topic of several research reports. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Fortis from C$62.00 to C$65.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. CIBC lifted their target price on Fortis from C$63.00 to C$64.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Raymond James lowered Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortis news, Senior Officer Keri Linda Glitch purchased 450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The stock was purchased at an average price of C$61.41 per share, for a total transaction of C$27,634.59. Following the purchase, the insider now directly owns 450 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$27,634.59. This trade represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. Also, Director Gary Joseph Smith sold 21,716 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$61.45, for a total value of C$1,334,543.75. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of Fortis stock opened at C$60.69 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is C$60.97 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$59.44. The firm has a market capitalization of C$30.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.03, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.23. Fortis has a 12-month low of C$51.02 and a 12-month high of C$63.75. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.59.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Sunday, December 1st were issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 18th. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.47%. Fortis’s payout ratio is presently 77.12%.

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.