Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS – Get Rating) has been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the fourteen ratings firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is C$61.64.
A number of brokerages have commented on FTS. UBS Group lowered shares of Fortis from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from C$61.00 to C$56.00 in a report on Thursday, June 30th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$62.00 to C$60.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$60.00 to C$64.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 23rd. Credit Suisse Group cut their price objective on shares of Fortis to C$62.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 22nd. Finally, CSFB cut their target price on shares of Fortis from C$66.00 to C$62.00 in a research note on Friday, July 22nd.
Fortis Stock Performance
TSE:FTS opened at C$50.26 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 123.72. The firm has a market capitalization of C$24.06 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.04. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is C$57.37 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$60.34. Fortis has a twelve month low of C$50.04 and a twelve month high of C$65.26.
Fortis (TSE:FTS – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 28th. The company reported C$0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of C$0.62 by C($0.05). The company had revenue of C$2.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of C$2.25 billion. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Fortis will post 2.9600004 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Fortis Announces Dividend
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 1st. Investors of record on Friday, August 19th were given a dividend of $0.535 per share. This represents a $2.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 18th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is presently 79.92%.
Fortis Company Profile
Fortis Inc operates as an electric and gas utility company in Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean countries. It generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to approximately 438,000 retail customers in southeastern Arizona; and 100,000 retail customers in Arizona’s Mohave and Santa Cruz counties with an aggregate capacity of 3,485 megawatts (MW), including 53 MW of solar capacity and 252 MV of wind capacity.