Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Receives C$75.75 Average Price Target from Analysts

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) has earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the ten ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$78.68.

FTS has been the topic of several analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Fortis from C$72.00 to C$70.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Raymond James Financial raised their price target on shares of Fortis from C$78.50 to C$80.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of Fortis from C$79.00 to C$80.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Fortis from C$74.00 to C$77.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Desjardins lifted their target price on shares of Fortis from C$79.00 to C$81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Karen J. Gosse sold 8,412 shares of Fortis stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of C$78.18, for a total value of C$657,650.16. Following the sale, the insider owned 52,228 shares in the company, valued at C$4,083,185.04. This trade represents a 13.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Fortis Price Performance

FTS stock opened at C$76.74 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of C$39.07 billion, a PE ratio of 22.64, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.47. 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 firm’s fifty day moving average is C$77.95 and its 200 day moving average is C$74.36. Fortis has a one year low of C$63.54 and a one year high of C$80.69.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported C$0.99 EPS for the quarter. The company had revenue of C$3.40 billion for the quarter. Fortis had a net margin of 14.75% and a return on equity of 7.51%. On average, research analysts forecast that Fortis will post 3.3419913 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 1st will be given a $0.64 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 15th. This represents a $2.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.3%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 74.04%.

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.