Fortis (NYSE:FTS) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.02 EPS

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02, Zacks reports. Fortis had a net margin of 14.06% and a return on equity of 7.01%. The business had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.08 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.72 earnings per share.

Fortis Stock Performance

FTS traded up $0.49 during trading on Friday, reaching $44.81. 7,646,555 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 389,661. Fortis has a 1 year low of $36.86 and a 1 year high of $46.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.50. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $42.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $43.51.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.4324 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.73 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.86%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 79.41%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FTS has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Fortis in a research report on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Raymond James cut shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold”.

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.