Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Receives C$79.32 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the ten brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$79.32.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on FTS shares. Raymond James Financial boosted their price objective on Fortis from C$78.50 to C$80.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Fortis from C$84.00 to C$83.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 8th. National Bank Financial upped their target price on shares of Fortis from C$75.00 to C$82.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Finally, TD upped their target price on shares of Fortis from C$83.00 to C$84.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortis news, insider James Reid sold 421 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$79.05, for a total transaction of C$33,280.05. Following the sale, the insider owned 31,283 shares in the company, valued at C$2,472,921.15. This represents a 1.33% decrease in their position. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Fortis Price Performance

Fortis stock opened at C$82.57 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is C$77.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$75.84. The company has a market capitalization of C$42.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.43. Fortis has a 1 year low of C$63.54 and a 1 year high of C$82.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 145.23, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.49.

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

Fortis Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 1st were issued a dividend of $0.64 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $2.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is 74.04%.

About Fortis

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.