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

Shares of Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the ten brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is C$79.68.

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on FTS. National Bank Financial raised their price objective on 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. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lowered Fortis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Desjardins upped their target price on Fortis from C$81.00 to C$85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 20th.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider James Reid sold 24,700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$79.21, for a total value of C$1,956,487.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 31,283 shares of the company’s stock, valued at C$2,477,926.43. This trade represents a 44.12% decrease in their position. Insiders have bought a total of 572 shares of company stock worth $45,909 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Trading Down 0.0%

TSE:FTS opened at C$75.36 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of C$38.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.16, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.34. Fortis has a 52 week low of C$67.15 and a 52 week high of C$83.75. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 143.60. The firm has a 50 day moving average of C$78.99 and a 200 day moving average of C$78.48.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 31st. The company reported C$0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The business had revenue of C$2.93 billion for the quarter. Fortis had a net margin of 14.72% and a return on equity of 7.43%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortis will post 3.3419913 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 1st were paid a dividend of $0.64 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $2.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.4%. Fortis’s payout ratio is presently 74.56%.

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.