Brokerages Set Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) PT at C$60.40

Shares of Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Reduce” from the ten brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$60.40.

Several research firms recently weighed in on FTS. CIBC increased their price target on Fortis from C$57.00 to C$59.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Fortis from C$52.00 to C$53.00 in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$62.00 to C$65.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. 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 report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, National Bankshares increased their price target on Fortis from C$56.00 to C$62.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd.

Insider Activity

In other 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 value of C$1,187,493.18. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of TSE:FTS opened at C$59.74 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of C$60.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$56.23. Fortis has a 52 week low of C$51.02 and a 52 week high of C$62.29. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.59. The stock has a market capitalization of C$29.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.73, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.23.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported C$0.67 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of C$2.71 billion. On average, analysts expect that Fortis will post 3.29329 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.56%. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 77.12%.

About Fortis

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.