Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Receives Average Rating of “Reduce” from Analysts

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” from the ten analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$60.40.

FTS has been the topic of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Fortis from C$52.00 to C$53.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$62.00 to C$65.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Fortis from C$59.00 to C$61.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. UBS Group raised Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Bank of America set a C$60.00 target price on Fortis and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Fortis news, Senior Officer James Reid sold 19,972 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of C$59.46, for a total value of C$1,187,493.18. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Fortis Price Performance

The stock has a fifty day moving average of C$59.89 and a 200 day moving average of C$56.04. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.59. Fortis has a 1 year low of C$51.02 and a 1 year high of C$62.29. The company has a market cap of C$29.88 billion, a PE ratio of 19.08, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.23.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported C$0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of C$0.65 by C$0.02. The firm had revenue of C$2.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of C$2.71 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.35% and a return on equity of 7.44%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Fortis will post 3.29329 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of ∞. Fortis’s payout ratio is presently 77.12%.

About Fortis

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.