Fortis (TSE:FTS) Stock Price Expected to Rise, CIBC Analyst Says

Fortis (TSE:FTS) had its price objective increased by CIBC from C$63.00 to C$64.00 in a report issued on Wednesday,BayStreet.CA reports. The brokerage currently has a neutral rating on the stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on FTS. Raymond James cut shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Fortis from C$62.00 to C$65.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Bank of America set a C$60.00 price objective on Fortis and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, UBS Group raised Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and six have issued a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of C$60.89.

Fortis Stock Performance

Fortis stock opened at C$58.92 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of C$29.18 billion, a PE ratio of 18.47, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.59. Fortis has a 1 year low of C$51.02 and a 1 year high of C$63.75. The company’s 50-day moving average is C$61.07 and its two-hundred day moving average is C$59.21.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Sunday, December 1st were paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 18th. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.63%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 77.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortis

In other news, Director Gary Joseph Smith sold 21,716 shares of Fortis stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$61.45, for a total transaction of C$1,334,543.75. Also, Senior Officer Jocelyn Perry sold 11,809 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$63.19, for a total value of C$746,178.83. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.