Fortis (TSE:FTS) Shares Cross Above 200 Day Moving Average – Here’s Why

Shares of Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) passed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Tuesday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of C$59.52 and traded as high as C$61.39. Fortis shares last traded at C$61.03, with a volume of 1,408,533 shares traded.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. CIBC upped their target price on Fortis from C$63.00 to C$64.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Fortis from C$62.00 to C$65.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Raymond James downgraded shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and six have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortis has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of C$60.89.

Fortis Stock Up 0.8 %

The company has a market cap of C$30.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.59, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.69. The stock’s fifty day moving average is C$60.95 and its two-hundred day moving average is C$59.52.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported C$0.85 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of C$0.81 by C$0.04. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.44% and a net margin of 14.35%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.84 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Fortis Inc. will post 3.3419913 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Sunday, December 1st were issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 18th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.44%. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 77.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortis

In other Fortis news, Director Gary Joseph Smith sold 21,716 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$61.45, for a total transaction of C$1,334,543.75. Also, Senior Officer Keri Linda Glitch purchased 450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The shares were purchased at an average price of C$61.41 per share, with a total value of C$27,634.59. Following the purchase, the insider now directly owns 450 shares in the company, valued at C$27,634.59. This trade represents a ∞ increase in their position. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.