Fortis (TSE:FTS) Hits New 12-Month High – What’s Next?

Shares of Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as C$83.28 and last traded at C$83.16, with a volume of 72595 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at C$82.53.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. TD boosted their price objective on Fortis from C$83.00 to C$84.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Fortis from C$84.00 to C$83.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce downgraded shares of Fortis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. Desjardins lifted their target price on shares of Fortis from C$81.00 to C$85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, National Bank Financial upped their target price 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. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortis has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$79.68.

Fortis Stock Up 0.5%

The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 145.23. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of C$79.54 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$77.36. The stock has a market capitalization of C$42.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.46, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.41.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported C$0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.51% and a net margin of 14.75%.The company had revenue of C$3.40 billion during the quarter. Equities research analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 3.3419913 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Investors of record on Monday, June 1st were given a dividend of $0.64 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $2.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 74.04%.

Insider Transactions at Fortis

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

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.