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

Shares of Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the ten research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is C$78.68.

Several research firms recently weighed in on FTS. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on Fortis from C$79.00 to C$80.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. National Bank Financial increased their price target on shares of Fortis from C$74.00 to C$75.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$79.00 to C$80.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$84.00 to C$83.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, TD upped their target price on shares of Fortis from C$83.00 to C$84.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th.

Fortis Stock Performance

TSE:FTS opened at C$77.37 on Friday. Fortis has a 12 month low of C$63.54 and a 12 month high of C$80.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 145.23, a current ratio of 0.49 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market capitalization of C$39.39 billion, a PE ratio of 22.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.47. The business’s fifty day moving average price is C$77.50 and its 200 day moving average price is C$74.96.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported C$0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of C$3.40 billion during the quarter. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.51% and a net margin of 14.75%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortis will post 3.3419913 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Investors of record on Monday, June 1st will be given a $0.64 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 15th. This represents a $2.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.3%. Fortis’s payout ratio is 74.04%.

About Fortis

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.