Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Receives C$75.75 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$78.68.

Several research firms have weighed in on FTS. TD increased their target price on shares of Fortis from C$83.00 to C$84.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Fortis from C$74.00 to C$77.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$79.00 to C$80.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$79.00 to C$80.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Desjardins raised their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$79.00 to C$81.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th.

Insider Activity at Fortis

In other Fortis news, insider Karen J. Gosse sold 8,412 shares of Fortis stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of C$78.18, for a total value of C$657,650.16. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 52,228 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$4,083,185.04. The trade was a 13.87% decrease in their position. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of FTS stock opened at C$76.74 on Monday. Fortis has a 52-week low of C$63.54 and a 52-week high of C$80.69. The stock has a market cap of C$39.07 billion, a PE ratio of 22.64, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 145.23, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.49. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is C$77.95 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$74.36.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported C$0.99 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of C$3.40 billion for the quarter. Fortis had a net margin of 14.75% and a return on equity of 7.51%. As a group, analysts forecast that Fortis will post 3.3419913 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Investors of record on Monday, June 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.64 per share. This represents a $2.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 15th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 74.04%.

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.