Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the ten brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is C$66.35.

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Fortis from C$67.00 to C$70.00 in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$66.00 to C$70.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. CIBC boosted their price objective on Fortis from C$68.00 to C$69.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. TD Securities set a C$74.00 target price on Fortis and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Cibc World Mkts upgraded Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st.

Fortis Trading Up 1.5%

TSE FTS opened at C$68.79 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of C$34.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.42, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.23. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of C$65.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$64.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 142.31, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.36. Fortis has a one year low of C$57.50 and a one year high of C$69.70.

Fortis Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 1st will be given a dividend of $0.615 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 19th. This represents a $2.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.6%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 73.02%.

Fortis Company Profile

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.