Fortis (TSE:FTS) Shares Pass Above 200-Day Moving Average – Here’s What Happened

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS)’s share price crossed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Thursday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of C$76.98 and traded as high as C$82.43. Fortis shares last traded at C$82.43, with a volume of 1,137,147 shares changing hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on FTS. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lowered shares of Fortis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. TD lifted their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$83.00 to C$84.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Raymond James Financial upped their price target on Fortis from C$78.50 to C$80.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. National Bank Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$75.00 to C$82.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on Fortis from C$84.00 to C$83.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 8th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$79.32.

Fortis Stock Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is C$79.15 and its 200-day moving average price is C$77.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 145.23, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.49. The company has a market capitalization of C$41.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.31, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.41.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported C$0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Fortis had a net margin of 14.75% and a return on equity of 7.51%. The company had revenue of C$3.40 billion during the quarter. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 3.3419913 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Investors of record on Monday, June 1st were issued a $0.64 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $2.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 74.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortis

In other news, insider James Reid sold 421 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$79.05, for a total value of C$33,280.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 31,283 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$2,472,921.15. This represents a 1.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Insiders bought a total of 572 shares of company stock valued at $45,909 over the last ninety days. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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