Fortis - FTS Stock Forecast, Price & News

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 438,000 retail customers in southeastern Arizona; and 100,000 retail customers in Arizona's Mohave and Santa Cruz counties with an aggregate capacity of 3,485 megawatts (MW), including 53 MW of solar capacity and 252 MV of wind capacity. The company also sells wholesale electricity to other entities in the western United States; owns gas-fired and hydroelectric generating capacity totaling 65 MW; and distributes natural gas to approximately 1,065,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in British Columbia, Canada. In addition, it owns and operates the electricity distribution system that serves approximately 577,000 customers in southern and central Alberta; owns 4 hydroelectric generating facilities with a combined capacity of 225 MW; and provides operation, maintenance, and management services to five hydroelectric generating facilities. Further, the company distributes electricity in the island portion of Newfoundland and Labrador with an installed generating capacity of 143 MW; and on Prince Edward Island with a generating capacity of 130 MW. Additionally, it provides integrated electric utility service to approximately 68,000 customers in Ontario; approximately 272,000 customers in Newfoundland and Labrador; approximately 32,000 customers on Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands; and approximately 16,000 customers on certain islands in Turks and Caicos. The company also holds long-term contracted generation assets in Belize consisting of 3 hydroelectric generating facilities with a combined capacity of 51 MW; and the Aitken Creek natural gas storage facility. It also owns and operates approximately 90,200 circuit Kilometers (km) of distribution lines; and approximately 50,500 km of natural gas pipelines. Fortis Inc. was founded in 1885 and is headquartered in St. John's, Canada.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. National Bank Financial upped their target price on shares of Fortis from C$59.00 to C$60.00 in a research report on Friday, May 6th. Edward Jones downgraded shares of Fortis from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 27th. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Fortis from C$61.00 to C$63.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 19th. UBS Group downgraded shares of Fortis from a "neutral" rating to a "sell" rating and set a $56.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Thursday, June 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Fortis from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 1st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortis currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $60.10.

Fortis Stock Performance

Fortis stock traded down $0.41 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $46.81. 617,455 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 620,296. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $46.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $47.83. Fortis has a fifty-two week low of $43.12 and a fifty-two week high of $51.66. The stock has a market cap of $22.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.51, a P/E/G ratio of 4.03 and a beta of 0.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.53.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.4149 per share. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 18th. Fortis's dividend payout ratio is currently 80.29%.