Fortis (TSE:FTS) Hits New 52-Week High – Should You Buy?

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) shares reached a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as C$80.79 and last traded at C$80.77, with a volume of 103112 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at C$80.22.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on FTS. National Bank Financial upped their price target on Fortis from C$75.00 to C$82.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Fortis from C$84.00 to C$83.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 8th. Raymond James Financial increased their price target on shares of Fortis from C$78.50 to C$80.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Finally, TD increased their price target on shares of Fortis from C$83.00 to C$84.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of C$79.32.

Fortis Trading Up 0.6%

The stock has a market cap of C$41.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.80, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 145.23, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.49. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of C$77.56 and a 200-day moving average price of C$75.35.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported C$0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Fortis had a net margin of 14.75% and a return on equity of 7.51%. The business had revenue of C$3.40 billion during the quarter. On average, equities research analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 3.3419913 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 1st were given a dividend of $0.64 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $2.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.2%. Fortis’s payout ratio is presently 74.04%.

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.