Q1 2024 Earnings Forecast for Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Issued By Raymond James

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) – Stock analysts at Raymond James reduced their Q1 2024 earnings estimates for Fortis in a research report issued on Thursday, April 25th. Raymond James analyst D. Quezada now forecasts that the utilities provider will post earnings of $0.64 per share for the quarter, down from their prior estimate of $0.68. The consensus estimate for Fortis’ current full-year earnings is $2.37 per share.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.01. Fortis had a net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 7.00%. The firm had revenue of $2.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.53 earnings per share.

Separately, StockNews.com cut shares of Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.13.

Fortis Price Performance

NYSE FTS opened at $39.29 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.37 billion, a PE ratio of 17.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $39.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $39.95. Fortis has a 12-month low of $36.30 and a 12-month high of $46.28.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a $0.4382 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.46%. Fortis’s payout ratio is 55.65%.

Institutional Trading of Fortis

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of FTS. FIL Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 33.8% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 19,477,406 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $801,263,000 after buying an additional 4,924,031 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Fortis in the fourth quarter worth $120,880,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortis in the fourth quarter worth $119,043,000. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 22.3% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 13,380,619 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $553,145,000 after buying an additional 2,438,223 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 11.4% in the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 12,664,645 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $481,130,000 after buying an additional 1,294,939 shares during the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.