Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$79.23.

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on FTS. Desjardins upped their price target on shares of Fortis from C$81.00 to C$85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 20th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce dropped their target price on Fortis from C$82.00 to C$78.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 22nd. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on Fortis from C$82.00 to C$76.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 30th.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of FTS opened at C$75.66 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of C$38.65 billion, a PE ratio of 22.25, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 143.60, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.56. The company’s 50 day moving average price is C$76.67 and its 200 day moving average price is C$78.07. Fortis has a 52 week low of C$69.06 and a 52 week high of C$83.75.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last released its earnings results on Friday, July 31st. The company reported C$0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of C$2.93 billion during the quarter. Fortis had a net margin of 14.72% and a return on equity of 7.43%. Research analysts expect that Fortis will post 3.3419913 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 1st were given a $0.64 dividend. This represents a $2.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 19th. Fortis’s payout ratio is currently 74.56%.

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.