Fortis (TSE:FTS) Sets New 1-Year High – Should You Buy?

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) shares hit a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as C$81.14 and last traded at C$81.01, with a volume of 269731 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at C$80.55.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Fortis Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 145.23. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is C$77.72 and its 200-day moving average price is C$75.79. The company has a market capitalization of C$41.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.43.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported C$0.99 earnings per share 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. Equities research analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 3.3419913 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 1st were paid a $0.64 dividend. This represents a $2.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 74.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortis

In other news, insider James Reid sold 421 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$79.05, for a total transaction of C$33,280.05. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 31,283 shares in the company, valued at C$2,472,921.15. The trade was a 1.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by 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.