Fortis (TSE:FTS) Sets New 12-Month High – Time to Buy?

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as C$63.40 and last traded at C$62.90, with a volume of 3815559 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at C$63.13.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on FTS. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Fortis from C$59.00 to C$61.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Bank of America set a C$60.00 target price on Fortis and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Raymond James cut shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$56.00 to C$63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, CIBC boosted their target price on shares of Fortis from C$57.00 to C$59.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and six have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$60.33.

Fortis Stock Performance

The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is C$61.20 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$57.89. The company has a market capitalization of C$31.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.72, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.59, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Sunday, December 1st will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.28%. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. Fortis’s payout ratio is presently 77.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortis

In related news, Director Gary Joseph Smith sold 21,716 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$61.45, for a total transaction of C$1,334,543.75. Also, Senior Officer Keri Linda Glitch bought 450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The stock was bought at an average price of C$61.41 per share, with a total value of C$27,634.59. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 450 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$27,634.59. This represents a ? increase in their ownership of the stock. Company 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.