Fortis (FTS) Set to Announce Earnings on Wednesday

Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) is scheduled to be announcing its earnings results before the market opens on Wednesday, May 1st. Analysts expect the company to announce earnings of $0.68 per share for the quarter. Investors that wish to listen to the company's conference call can do so using this link.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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. On average, analysts expect Fortis to post $2 EPS for the current fiscal year and $2 EPS for the next fiscal year.

Fortis Trading Up 0.2 %

FTS stock traded up $0.06 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $39.16. The company's stock had a trading volume of 611,675 shares, compared to its average volume of 845,446. The company has a market cap of $19.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.42. The business's 50 day moving average price is $39.09 and its 200 day moving average price is $39.97. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. Fortis has a 12 month low of $36.30 and a 12 month high of $46.28.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.4382 per share. This is an increase from Fortis's previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.48%. Fortis's payout ratio is currently 55.65%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded Fortis from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $55.13.

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.