Fortis (FTS) Set to Announce Earnings on Wednesday

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) will be announcing its earnings results before the market opens on Wednesday, May 1st. Analysts expect the company to announce earnings of $0.68 per share for the quarter. Investors that are interested in registering for the company’s conference call can do so using this link.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01. Fortis had a net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 7.00%. The firm had revenue of $2.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.53 EPS. On average, analysts expect Fortis to post $2 EPS for the current fiscal year and $2 EPS for the next fiscal year.

Fortis Price Performance

NYSE FTS opened at $39.10 on Wednesday. Fortis has a 52 week low of $36.30 and a 52 week high of $46.28. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. The stock has a market cap of $19.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $39.08 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $39.98.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a $0.4382 dividend. This is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 55.65%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com lowered shares of Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortis presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.13.

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.