Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the nine ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$74.85.

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Raymond James Financial boosted their price target on shares of Fortis from C$72.00 to C$75.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. TD Securities raised their target price on shares of Fortis from C$77.00 to C$79.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Fortis from C$72.00 to C$74.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Scotiabank increased their price target on Fortis from C$74.00 to C$79.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. Finally, National Bankshares boosted their price objective on Fortis from C$68.00 to C$72.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th.

Fortis Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of Fortis stock opened at C$72.19 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of C$36.21 billion, a PE ratio of 21.49, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.31. Fortis has a twelve month low of C$60.48 and a twelve month high of C$74.00. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is C$71.51 and its 200 day moving average price is C$70.01. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 142.31.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 4th. The company reported C$0.87 EPS for the quarter. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.48% and a net margin of 14.53%.The company had revenue of C$2.94 billion during the quarter. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Fortis will post 3.3419913 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 1st were given a dividend of $0.64 per share. This represents a $2.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 17th. This is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is presently 73.21%.

Fortis Company Profile

Fortis owns and operates 10 utility transmission and distribution assets in Canada and the United States, serving more than 3.4 million electricity and gas customers. The company has smaller stakes in electricity generation and several Caribbean utilities. ITC operates electric transmission in seven U.S. states, with more than 16,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines in operation serving a peak load in excess of 23 gigawatts.