Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$77.06.

A number of research firms have weighed in on FTS. National Bank Financial raised their price target on Fortis from C$68.00 to C$72.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Fortis from C$72.00 to C$70.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Fortis from C$74.00 to C$77.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on Fortis from C$79.00 to C$80.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Raymond James Financial boosted their target price on Fortis from C$75.50 to C$78.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortis

In other news, insider Karen J. Gosse sold 8,412 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, the insider owned 52,228 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$4,083,185.04. This represents a 13.87% decrease in their position. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Trading Down 2.0%

Shares of TSE:FTS opened at C$75.65 on Friday. Fortis has a 52 week low of C$61.32 and a 52 week high of C$80.44. The company’s 50 day moving average is C$75.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is C$72.47. The company has a current ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 145.62. The company has a market cap of C$38.38 billion, a PE ratio of 22.25, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.45.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The company reported C$0.90 earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of C$3.08 billion for the quarter. Fortis had a net margin of 14.78% and a return on equity of 7.51%. Equities analysts predict that Fortis will post 3.3419913 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Sunday, March 1st were issued a dividend of $0.64 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $2.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.4%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 73.09%.

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.