Brokerages Set Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) PT at C$58.17

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the eight ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is C$58.90.

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. CIBC lifted their target price on Fortis from C$57.00 to C$59.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Fortis from C$58.50 to C$59.00 in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Fortis from C$52.00 to C$53.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Fortis from C$56.00 to C$59.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Finally, National Bankshares lifted their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$56.00 to C$62.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday.

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of TSE FTS opened at C$59.49 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.59. The company has a market capitalization of C$29.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.22. Fortis has a twelve month low of C$49.82 and a twelve month high of C$60.37. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of C$56.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of C$54.52.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported C$0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of C$0.65 by C$0.02. Fortis had a net margin of 14.35% and a return on equity of 7.44%. The firm had revenue of C$2.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of C$2.71 billion. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Fortis will post 3.2312668 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Sunday, September 1st will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 20th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 73.98%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Senior Officer James Reid bought 700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 19th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of C$52.37 per share, with a total value of C$36,659.00. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Company Profile

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.