Karen Gosse Sells 8,412 Shares of Fortis (TSE:FTS) Stock

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) insider Karen Gosse sold 8,412 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 52,228 shares of the company’s stock, valued at C$4,083,185.04. This trade represents a 13.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock.

Fortis Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of TSE FTS traded down C$0.65 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting C$77.59. The company had a trading volume of 434,479 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,850,176. Fortis Inc. has a 1-year low of C$61.32 and a 1-year high of C$78.47. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 142.31. The firm’s 50 day moving average is C$72.80 and its 200-day moving average is C$71.30. The stock has a market capitalization of C$39.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.35.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The company reported C$0.90 earnings per share for the quarter. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.48% and a net margin of 14.53%.The firm had revenue of C$3.08 billion for the quarter. On average, analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 3.3419913 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Sunday, March 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.64 per share. This represents a $2.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 17th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 73.09%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on FTS. Scotiabank upped their target price on Fortis from C$79.00 to C$80.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce upped their price objective on Fortis from C$75.00 to C$76.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Fortis from C$74.00 to C$77.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on shares of Fortis from C$79.00 to C$80.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, TD Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$77.00 to C$79.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$75.65.

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.