Fortis (TSE:FTS) Director Acquires 141 Shares

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Director Pierre Blouin acquired 141 shares of Fortis stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 2nd. The stock was purchased at an average price of C$81.69 per share, with a total value of C$11,518.29. Following the purchase, the director owned 1,998 shares of the company’s stock, valued at C$163,216.62. The trade was a 7.59% increase in their position.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of FTS traded down C$0.40 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching C$81.79. 146,238 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,686,979. The stock has a market capitalization of C$41.64 billion, a PE ratio of 24.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.43. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is C$78.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$76.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 145.23, a current ratio of 0.49 and a quick ratio of 0.36. Fortis Inc. has a 52-week low of C$63.54 and a 52-week high of C$82.67.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported C$0.99 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 for the quarter. On average, equities research analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 3.3419913 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 1st were given a dividend of $0.64 per share. This represents a $2.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 74.04%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on FTS. TD boosted their target price on Fortis from C$83.00 to C$84.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$84.00 to C$83.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Raymond James Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$78.50 to C$80.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Finally, National Bank Financial upped 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortis presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$79.32.

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.