Fortis (TSE:FTS) Sets New 1-Year High – What’s Next?

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as C$79.05 and last traded at C$78.51, with a volume of 1740506 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at C$78.59.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FTS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Raymond James Financial boosted their target price on Fortis from C$75.50 to C$78.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on shares of Fortis from C$79.00 to C$80.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Fortis from C$79.00 to C$80.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce boosted their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$75.00 to C$76.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, National Bank Financial raised their target price on shares of Fortis from C$68.00 to C$72.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$75.65.

Fortis Stock Performance

The company’s fifty day moving average price is C$74.15 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$71.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 145.62, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.51. The firm has a market capitalization of C$39.84 billion, a PE ratio of 23.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.45.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The company reported C$0.90 EPS for the quarter. Fortis had a net margin of 14.78% and a return on equity of 7.51%. The firm had revenue of C$3.08 billion during the quarter. As a group, equities analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 3.3419913 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Sunday, March 1st were issued a $0.64 dividend. This represents a $2.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 17th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 73.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortis

In other news, insider Karen J. Gosse sold 8,412 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of C$78.18, for a total transaction of C$657,650.16. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 52,228 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$4,083,185.04. The trade was a 13.87% decrease in their position. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Fortis

Fortis owns and operates 10 utility transmission and distribution assets in Canada and the United States, serving more than 3.4 million electricity and gas customers. The company has smaller stakes in electricity generation and several Caribbean utilities. ITC operates electric transmission in seven U.S. states, with more than 16,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines in operation serving a peak load in excess of 23 gigawatts.