Fortis (TSE:FTS) Hits New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as C$82.50 and last traded at C$81.58, with a volume of 320741 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$80.85.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FTS has been the subject of a number of research reports. Raymond James Financial raised their price target on shares of Fortis from C$78.50 to C$80.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. National Bank Financial raised their target price on Fortis from C$75.00 to C$82.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Barclays dropped their price target on Fortis from C$84.00 to C$83.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, TD increased their price target on Fortis from C$83.00 to C$84.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. One research 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of C$79.32.

Fortis Stock Down 0.5%

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 stock’s 50 day simple moving average is C$78.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$76.52. The firm has a market cap of C$41.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.41.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported C$0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of C$3.40 billion during the quarter. Fortis had a net margin of 14.75% and a return on equity of 7.51%. Research analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 3.3419913 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Fortis

In other Fortis news, insider James Reid sold 24,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$79.21, for a total transaction of C$1,956,487.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 31,283 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$2,477,926.43. The trade was a 44.12% decrease in their position. In the last three months, insiders bought 572 shares of company stock worth $45,909. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.