Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Given Average Recommendation of “Reduce” by Analysts

Shares of Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) have received a consensus rating of “Reduce” from the nine brokerages that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and six have issued a hold recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$60.33.

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on FTS. UBS Group upgraded shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Raymond James cut shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Fortis from C$59.00 to C$61.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Fortis from C$62.00 to C$65.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Bank of America set a C$60.00 price target on Fortis and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th.

Fortis Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of TSE FTS opened at C$60.05 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.59, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.69. Fortis has a 1 year low of C$51.02 and a 1 year high of C$63.75. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is C$61.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$58.71. The firm has a market cap of C$29.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.82, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.23.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Sunday, December 1st were given a $0.83 dividend. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 18th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 77.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortis

In other news, Director Gary Joseph Smith sold 21,716 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$61.45, for a total value of C$1,334,543.75. Also, Senior Officer Jocelyn Perry sold 11,809 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$63.19, for a total value of C$746,178.83. 0.04% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.