Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.43

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 14th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of 0.4324 per share by the utilities provider on Sunday, June 1st. This represents a $1.73 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.86%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th.

Fortis has raised its dividend payment by an average of 5.2% per year over the last three years. Fortis has a payout ratio of 69.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Fortis to earn $2.34 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 73.5%.

Fortis Trading Up 1.1 %

NYSE FTS opened at $44.81 on Friday. Fortis has a twelve month low of $36.86 and a twelve month high of $46.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market cap of $22.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.83, a PEG ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.50. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $42.31 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $43.49.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Fortis in a research note on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Raymond James lowered shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Fortis presently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

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.