Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Receives C$60.33 Average Price Target from Brokerages

Shares of Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) have earned an average recommendation of “Reduce” from the nine brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and six have given a hold rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is C$60.33.

Several research firms recently issued reports on FTS. Raymond James downgraded shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. UBS Group raised Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Bank of America set a C$60.00 price target on Fortis and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Fortis from C$62.00 to C$65.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Fortis from C$59.00 to C$61.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 5th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortis

In related news, Director Gary Joseph Smith sold 21,716 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$61.45, for a total transaction of C$1,334,543.75. Also, Senior Officer Jocelyn Perry sold 11,809 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$63.19, for a total value of C$746,178.83. 0.04% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Fortis Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of TSE:FTS opened at C$60.01 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of C$61.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of C$58.64. Fortis has a 52-week low of C$51.02 and a 52-week high of C$63.75. 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 company has a market capitalization of C$29.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.23.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Sunday, December 1st were paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 18th. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.53%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.