Equities Analysts Offer Predictions for Fortis Inc.’s Q1 2024 Earnings (NYSE:FTS)

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) – National Bank Financial issued their Q1 2024 earnings per share estimates for Fortis in a research report issued on Tuesday, April 23rd. National Bank Financial analyst P. Kenny forecasts that the utilities provider will post earnings of $0.67 per share for the quarter. The consensus estimate for Fortis’ current full-year earnings is $2.39 per share.

Separately, StockNews.com lowered Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortis presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.13.

Fortis Stock Performance

NYSE:FTS opened at $39.06 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $39.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $39.96. Fortis has a 52-week low of $36.30 and a 52-week high of $46.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.25 billion, a PE ratio of 16.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.42.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.00% and a net margin of 13.22%. The business had revenue of $2.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.39 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.53 earnings per share.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortis

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FTS. Simplicity Solutions LLC lifted its position in shares of Fortis by 5.3% in the third quarter. Simplicity Solutions LLC now owns 9,264 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $352,000 after buying an additional 468 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of Fortis by 2.2% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 651,017 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $24,732,000 after buying an additional 13,925 shares in the last quarter. Forsta AP Fonden lifted its position in shares of Fortis by 13.1% in the third quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 149,200 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,693,000 after buying an additional 17,300 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its position in shares of Fortis by 23.6% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 109,641 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,184,000 after buying an additional 20,918 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Fortis by 2.7% in the third quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 7,519,418 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $277,666,000 after buying an additional 198,494 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a $0.4382 dividend. This is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.49%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is 55.65%.

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.