Insider Buying: Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Director Acquires 190 Shares of Stock

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Director Pierre J. Blouin bought 190 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were bought at an average price of C$61.17 per share, for a total transaction of C$11,622.81. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 835 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$51,079.20.

Fortis Stock Performance

FTS traded down C$0.81 on Thursday, reaching C$60.98. 454,508 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,613,194. Fortis Inc. has a fifty-two week low of C$50.69 and a fifty-two week high of C$62.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.59, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market capitalization of C$30.20 billion, a PE ratio of 19.11, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.22. The company’s 50-day moving average price is C$59.79 and its 200 day moving average price is C$56.01.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported C$0.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of C$0.65 by C$0.02. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.44% and a net margin of 14.35%. The company had revenue of C$2.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of C$2.71 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 3.338843 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.44%. 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 73.98%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on FTS. UBS Group raised shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Fortis from C$52.00 to C$53.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Bank of America set a C$60.00 price target on Fortis and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. CIBC increased their target price on Fortis from C$57.00 to C$59.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price target on Fortis from C$56.00 to C$63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of C$60.40.

About Fortis

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.