Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Fortis has a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating from 10 analysts, evenly split between buy and hold recommendations. The average 12-month price target is C$79.68.
• Fortis opened at C$78.12, with a market capitalization of approximately C$39.91 billion. The company reported quarterly earnings of C$0.78 per share on C$2.93 billion in revenue.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of C$0.64 per share, equivalent to C$2.56 annually and a 3.3% yield; its payout ratio is 74.56%.

Shares of Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS - Get Free Report) have earned an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the ten ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$79.68.

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on FTS shares. TD boosted their target price on shares of Fortis from C$83.00 to C$84.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Fortis from C$84.00 to C$83.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Desjardins boosted their price objective on Fortis from C$81.00 to C$85.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, July 20th. Raymond James Financial raised their target price on Fortis from C$78.50 to C$80.50 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Finally, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce cut Fortis from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, July 17th.

Fortis Stock Performance

TSE FTS opened at C$78.12 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of C$80.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$78.12. Fortis has a 12-month low of C$67.15 and a 12-month high of C$83.75. The company has a current ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 143.60. The company has a market cap of C$39.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.98, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.42.

Fortis (TSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 31st. The company reported C$0.78 earnings per share for the quarter. Fortis had a net margin of 14.72% and a return on equity of 7.43%. The firm had revenue of C$2.93 billion for the quarter. Sell-side analysts predict that Fortis will post 3.3419913 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 1st will be paid a $0.64 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $2.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.3%. Fortis's dividend payout ratio is presently 74.56%.

Insider Activity at Fortis

In other news, insider James Reid sold 421 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$79.05, for a total value of C$33,280.05. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 31,283 shares in the company, valued at C$2,472,921.15. This represents a 1.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Insiders have bought a total of 572 shares of company stock valued at $45,909 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company's stock.

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.

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