Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the ten research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$79.68.

A number of brokerages recently commented on FTS. Desjardins upped their target price on Fortis from C$81.00 to C$85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 20th. National Bank Financial lifted their price target on shares of Fortis from C$75.00 to C$82.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Finally, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce downgraded shares of Fortis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 17th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortis

In related news, insider James Reid sold 421 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$79.05, for a total value of C$33,280.05. Following the sale, the insider owned 31,283 shares of the company’s stock, valued at C$2,472,921.15. The trade was a 1.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. In the last quarter, insiders have bought 572 shares of company stock worth $45,909. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Fortis Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of FTS opened at C$75.39 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is C$79.12 and its 200 day moving average price is C$78.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 143.60. The firm has a market capitalization of C$38.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.17, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.34. Fortis has a 12-month low of C$67.15 and a 12-month high of C$83.75.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 31st. The company reported C$0.78 EPS for the quarter. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.43% and a net margin of 14.72%.The company had revenue of C$2.93 billion during the quarter. As a group, research analysts predict that Fortis will post 3.3419913 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 1st were issued a dividend of $0.64 per share. This represents a $2.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 19th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 74.56%.

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.