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

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as C$75.84 and last traded at C$74.92, with a volume of 378038 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at C$73.99.

Fortis News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Fortis this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 earnings beat — Fortis reported C$0.90 EPS and C$3.08B revenue; commentary pointed to strong regulated utility growth and asset expansion. Fortis beats Q4 earnings expectations
• Positive Sentiment: Quarterly dividend declared — C$0.64 per share (annualized yield ~3.3%); ex-dividend date Feb 17, record date Mar 1. Income investors may favor the stock on the payout stability.
• Positive Sentiment: Desjardins raised its target to C$81 and kept a “buy” rating (largest upside among recent raises). BayStreet.CA
• Positive Sentiment: Raymond James raised its target to C$78.50 and kept an “outperform” rating, signaling continued bullish analyst view. BayStreet.CA TickerReport
• Neutral Sentiment: RBC and Scotiabank raised targets to C$80 (both keep “sector perform”) — modest upside but not full upgrades. BayStreet.CA
• Negative Sentiment: BMO lifted its target to C$77 and maintains a “market perform” rating — the target sits slightly below the recent price, implying limited upside/neutral-to-slightly-negative near term. BayStreet.CA

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. National Bank Financial boosted their price target on Fortis from C$68.00 to C$72.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. TD Securities boosted their target price on Fortis from C$77.00 to C$79.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Raymond James Financial upped their target price on Fortis from C$75.50 to C$78.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Desjardins lifted their price target on shares of Fortis from C$79.00 to C$81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce boosted their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$75.00 to C$76.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$75.65.

Fortis Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 142.31. The firm has a market cap of C$39.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.04, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.35. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of C$71.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of C$70.89.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The company reported C$0.90 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of C$3.08 billion for the quarter. Fortis had a net margin of 14.53% and a return on equity of 7.48%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Fortis Inc. will post 3.3419913 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Sunday, March 1st will be issued a $0.64 dividend. This represents a $2.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 17th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is 73.21%.

Fortis Company Profile

Fortis owns and operates 10 utility transmission and distribution assets in Canada and the United States, serving more than 3.4 million electricity and gas customers. The company has smaller stakes in electricity generation and several Caribbean utilities. ITC operates electric transmission in seven U.S. states, with more than 16,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines in operation serving a peak load in excess of 23 gigawatts.