Fortis (TSE:FTS) Shares Cross Above Two Hundred Day Moving Average of $55.52

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS)’s stock price passed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Thursday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of C$55.52 and traded as high as C$61.03. Fortis shares last traded at C$60.48, with a volume of 1,559,269 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$59.00 to C$61.00 in a report on Thursday, September 5th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Fortis from C$52.00 to C$53.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Scotiabank raised their target price on Fortis from C$56.00 to C$63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Raymond James boosted their target price on Fortis from C$59.00 to C$61.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$59.10.

Fortis Price Performance

The business’s fifty day simple moving average is C$58.73 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$55.52. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.59. The firm has a market cap of C$29.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.96, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.22.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported C$0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of C$0.65 by C$0.02. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.44% and a net margin of 14.35%. The company had revenue of C$2.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of C$2.71 billion. As a group, analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 3.3416115 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Sunday, September 1st were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.90%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 20th. Fortis’s payout ratio is 73.98%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Senior Officer James Reid sold 19,972 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of C$59.46, for a total transaction of C$1,187,493.18. 0.04% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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 447,000 retail customers in southeastern Arizona; and 103,000 retail customers in Arizona’s Mohave and Santa Cruz counties with an aggregate capacity of 3,408 megawatts (MW), including 68 MW of solar capacity and 250 MV of wind capacity.