Brokerages Set Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) PT at C$57.38

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) has received an average rating of “Hold” from the eight ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$57.38.

Several analysts recently issued reports on FTS shares. Raymond James decreased their target price on Fortis from C$62.00 to C$59.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Fortis from C$56.00 to C$59.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. Scotiabank decreased their target price on Fortis from C$60.00 to C$56.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Fortis from C$58.00 to C$58.50 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, CIBC raised their price target on Fortis from C$56.00 to C$57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd.

Insider Activity at Fortis

In other news, Senior Officer James Reid bought 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 19th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of C$52.37 per share, with a total value of C$36,659.00. 0.04% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Fortis Stock Down 0.4 %

TSE FTS opened at C$53.17 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is C$54.34 and its 200-day moving average price is C$53.87. The company has a market capitalization of C$26.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.18. Fortis has a 52 week low of C$49.82 and a 52 week high of C$57.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.89.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The company reported C$0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of C$0.89 by C$0.04. The company had revenue of C$3.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of C$3.34 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.38% and a net margin of 14.11%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Fortis will post 3.2075145 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Saturday, June 1st were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. Fortis’s payout ratio is currently 75.40%.

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.