Fortis (TSE:FTS) Price Target Raised to C$85.00

Fortis (TSE:FTS) had its target price hoisted by Desjardins from C$81.00 to C$85.00 in a research note published on Monday morning,BayStreet.CA reports. They currently have a buy rating on the stock.

Several other research analysts have also commented on FTS. National Bank Financial raised their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$75.00 to C$82.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. 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. Barclays reduced 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 report on Friday, May 8th. Raymond James Financial raised their price target on shares of Fortis from C$78.50 to C$80.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Finally, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce downgraded shares of Fortis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of C$79.68.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of Fortis stock opened at C$82.14 on Monday. The business has a 50-day moving average of C$79.43 and a 200 day moving average of C$77.28. Fortis has a 12 month low of C$66.21 and a 12 month high of C$82.87. The stock has a market capitalization of C$41.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 145.23, a current ratio of 0.49 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last released 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 during the quarter. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.51% and a net margin of 14.75%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Fortis will post 3.3419913 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Fortis

In other news, insider James Reid sold 24,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$79.21, for a total transaction of C$1,956,487.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 31,283 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$2,477,926.43. The trade was a 44.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Insiders bought 572 shares of company stock worth $45,909 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.