Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eight analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One research 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 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$57.63.

A number of equities analysts recently commented on FTS shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$52.00 to C$53.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Fortis from C$58.00 to C$58.50 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Fortis from C$56.00 to C$59.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. CIBC upped their target price on Fortis from C$56.00 to C$57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$60.00 to C$56.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 22nd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Senior Officer James Reid purchased 700 shares of Fortis stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 19th. The stock was bought at an average price of C$52.37 per share, with a total value of C$36,659.00. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of Fortis stock opened at C$56.88 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.89. Fortis has a 12-month low of C$49.82 and a 12-month high of C$57.73. The firm has a market capitalization of C$28.04 billion, a PE ratio of 18.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.18. The stock’s fifty day moving average is C$54.32 and its 200-day moving average is C$53.87.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The company reported C$0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of C$0.89 by C$0.04. Fortis had a net margin of 14.11% and a return on equity of 7.38%. The company had revenue of C$3.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of C$3.34 billion. Equities analysts anticipate that Fortis will post 3.2075145 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Saturday, June 1st were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.15%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 16th. Fortis’s payout ratio is presently 75.40%.

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.