Fortis Inc. Forecasted to Earn Q1 2024 Earnings of $0.67 Per Share (NYSE:FTS)

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS - Free Report) - Analysts at National Bank Financial issued their Q1 2024 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for Fortis in a research note issued on Tuesday, April 23rd. National Bank Financial analyst P. Kenny forecasts that the utilities provider will post earnings of $0.67 per share for the quarter. The consensus estimate for Fortis' current full-year earnings is $2.39 per share.

Separately, StockNews.com lowered Fortis from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortis presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $55.13.

Fortis Trading Up 0.4 %

FTS stock traded up $0.16 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $39.32. 593,265 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 847,679. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $39.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $39.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.67. The company has a market cap of $19.39 billion, a PE ratio of 17.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.42. Fortis has a one year low of $36.30 and a one year high of $46.28.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.39 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.00% and a net margin of 13.22%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.53 earnings per share.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a $0.4382 dividend. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.46%. This is a positive change from Fortis's previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. Fortis's payout ratio is 55.65%.

Institutional Trading of Fortis

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FTS. FIL Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 33.8% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 19,477,406 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $801,263,000 after purchasing an additional 4,924,031 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Fortis in the fourth quarter valued at about $120,880,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortis in the fourth quarter valued at about $119,043,000. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 22.3% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 13,380,619 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $553,145,000 after purchasing an additional 2,438,223 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 11.4% in the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 12,664,645 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $481,130,000 after purchasing an additional 1,294,939 shares in the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Fortis Company Profile

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.