Fortis (NYSE:FTS) Receives $72.00 Consensus Price Target from Brokerages

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the twelve brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have given a hold recommendation, four have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $72.00.

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. CIBC raised Fortis from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. TD Securities reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Fortis in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Fortis in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Cibc World Mkts raised Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a research report on Monday, August 4th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortis

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. bought a new position in shares of Fortis in the first quarter worth $28,000. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH bought a new position in shares of Fortis in the second quarter worth $28,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Fortis by 2,119.1% in the second quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,043 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 996 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Fortis by 286.7% in the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,106 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 820 shares during the period. Finally, Hexagon Capital Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Fortis by 111.7% in the first quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,226 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $56,000 after purchasing an additional 647 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Stock Performance

Fortis stock opened at $50.8340 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30. Fortis has a 1 year low of $40.32 and a 1 year high of $51.45. The company has a market cap of $25.60 billion, a PE ratio of 20.92, a PEG ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 0.46. The company’s 50-day moving average is $48.46 and its two-hundred day moving average is $46.96.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.91 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.24% and a net margin of 14.48%.During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.67 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Fortis will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.4448 per share. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 19th. Fortis’s payout ratio is 73.25%.

About Fortis

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.