Brokerages Set Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Price Target at C$73.65

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nine analysts that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$73.65.

FTS has been the topic of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Fortis from C$72.00 to C$74.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. CIBC boosted their price target on Fortis from C$74.00 to C$75.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Scotiabank upped their price target on Fortis from C$70.00 to C$73.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Desjardins lifted their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$76.00 to C$79.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Fortis from C$70.00 to C$72.00 in a research note on Monday, September 15th.

Fortis Price Performance

FTS opened at C$70.68 on Friday. Fortis has a 52-week low of C$57.98 and a 52-week high of C$74.00. The company has a 50 day moving average of C$71.77 and a two-hundred day moving average of C$68.64. The company has a market cap of C$35.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.04, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.30. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 142.31.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The company reported C$0.87 EPS for the quarter. Fortis had a net margin of 14.53% and a return on equity of 7.48%. The business had revenue of C$2.94 billion for the quarter. On average, analysts expect that Fortis will post 3.3419913 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 1st were given a $0.64 dividend. This represents a $2.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 17th. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 73.21%.

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.