Scotiabank Has Strong Forecast for Fortis FY2024 Earnings

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) – Stock analysts at Scotiabank increased their FY2024 earnings per share estimates for Fortis in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, January 8th. Scotiabank analyst R. Hope now expects that the company will post earnings per share of $3.27 for the year, up from their previous forecast of $3.24. The consensus estimate for Fortis’ current full-year earnings is $3.34 per share. Scotiabank also issued estimates for Fortis’ FY2026 earnings at $3.51 EPS.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on FTS. Bank of America set a C$60.00 target price on shares of Fortis and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Fortis from C$62.00 to C$65.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Raymond James lowered Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, CIBC lifted their price objective on Fortis from C$63.00 to C$64.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and six have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortis presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$60.89.

Fortis Stock Performance

TSE FTS opened at C$60.25 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.59. The company has a market capitalization of C$29.84 billion, a PE ratio of 18.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.23. The business’s 50-day moving average price is C$61.09 and its 200 day moving average price is C$59.21. Fortis has a twelve month low of C$51.02 and a twelve month high of C$63.75.

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 given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.51%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 18th. Fortis’s payout ratio is presently 77.12%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Senior Officer Jocelyn Perry sold 11,809 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$63.19, for a total transaction of C$746,178.83. Also, Senior Officer Keri Linda Glitch purchased 450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The stock was bought 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 owns 450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$27,634.59. The trade was a ∞ increase in their position. 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.