Fortis (TSE:FTS) Stock Price Crosses Above 200 Day Moving Average of $54.81

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) crossed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Monday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of C$54.81 and traded as high as C$59.57. Fortis shares last traded at C$59.30, with a volume of 1,379,196 shares.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FTS has been the topic of several analyst reports. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$59.00 to C$61.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Fortis from C$56.00 to C$59.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Fortis from C$52.00 to C$53.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. CIBC lifted their price objective on Fortis from C$57.00 to C$59.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Fortis from C$61.00 to C$62.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$58.90.

Fortis Trading Up 0.5 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.59, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The company has a market capitalization of C$29.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.22. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of C$56.77 and a 200-day moving average price of C$54.81.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported C$0.67 earnings per share 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, equities research analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 3.2439825 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Sunday, September 1st were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.98%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 20th. Fortis’s payout ratio is 73.98%.

Insider Activity at Fortis

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 value of C$1,187,493.18. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.