Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) has been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the eight ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$57.38.

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. CIBC increased their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$56.00 to C$57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on Fortis from C$60.00 to C$56.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Fortis from C$56.00 to C$59.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Fortis from C$58.00 to C$58.50 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Raymond James lowered their price target on Fortis from C$62.00 to C$59.00 in a report on Thursday, April 25th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Senior Officer James Reid bought 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 19th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of C$52.37 per share, for a total transaction of C$36,659.00. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Fortis Price Performance

FTS opened at C$53.00 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.89. The company’s 50-day moving average price is C$54.34 and its 200 day moving average price is C$53.85. Fortis has a fifty-two week low of C$49.82 and a fifty-two week high of C$57.93. The firm has a market cap of C$26.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.18.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The company reported C$0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of C$0.89 by C$0.04. The business had revenue of C$3.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of C$3.34 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.38% and a net margin of 14.11%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Fortis will post 3.2075145 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Saturday, June 1st were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.45%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 16th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is presently 75.40%.

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.