Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Given Average Rating of “Reduce” by Analysts

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) has received a consensus rating of “Reduce” from the eight ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and six have issued a hold recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$60.89.

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. CIBC raised their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$63.00 to C$64.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Raymond James downgraded Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th.

Fortis Trading Down 0.3 %

FTS opened at C$62.16 on Friday. 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 52 week low of C$51.02 and a 52 week high of C$63.75. The business’s 50 day moving average is C$60.73 and its two-hundred day moving average is C$60.24. The firm has a market cap of C$30.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.23.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported C$0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 quarter last year, the company earned $0.84 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Fortis will post 3.3419913 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Saturday, March 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.615 per share. This represents a $2.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.96%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 77.12%.

Insider Transactions at Fortis

In other news, Senior Officer Jocelyn Perry sold 11,809 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$63.19, for a total value of C$746,178.83. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Company Profile

Fortis owns and operates 10 utility transmission and distribution assets in Canada and the United States, serving more than 3.4 million electricity and gas customers. The company has smaller stakes in electricity generation and several Caribbean utilities. ITC operates electric transmission in seven U.S.