Jefferies Financial Group Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Fortis (TSE:FTS) Stock Price

Fortis (TSE:FTS) had its price target reduced by research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from C$72.00 to C$70.00 in a report released on Wednesday,BayStreet.CA reports. Jefferies Financial Group’s target price would indicate a potential downside of 3.15% from the company’s previous close.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Desjardins lifted their price target on Fortis from C$76.00 to C$79.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Fortis from C$74.00 to C$79.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 16th. Raymond James Financial upped their target price on shares of Fortis from C$72.00 to C$75.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. National Bankshares boosted their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$68.00 to C$72.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, CIBC upped their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$75.00 to C$76.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$74.65.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of TSE FTS traded down C$0.63 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting C$72.28. 357,456 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,413,726. The firm has a market capitalization of C$36.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.51, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.31. Fortis has a one year low of C$60.50 and a one year high of C$74.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 142.31, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The company’s 50 day moving average is C$71.50 and its 200 day moving average is C$70.21.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The company reported C$0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of C$2.94 billion during the quarter. Fortis had a net margin of 14.53% and a return on equity of 7.48%. On average, research analysts expect that Fortis will post 3.3419913 EPS for the current year.

About Fortis

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. states, with more than 16,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines in operation serving a peak load in excess of 23 gigawatts.