Fortis (TSE:FTS) Price Target Raised to C$85.00 at Desjardins

Fortis (TSE:FTS) had its price objective lifted by Desjardins from C$81.00 to C$85.00 in a research note released on Monday morning,BayStreet.CA reports. Desjardins currently has a buy rating on the stock.

Several other research firms have also commented on FTS. National Bank Financial raised their price target on Fortis from C$75.00 to C$82.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Raymond James Financial boosted their price objective on Fortis from C$78.50 to C$80.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Barclays decreased their target price on Fortis from C$84.00 to C$83.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce cut Fortis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, TD lifted their target price on Fortis from C$83.00 to C$84.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of C$79.68.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of FTS stock opened at C$82.00 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is C$79.25 and its 200-day moving average price is C$77.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 145.23, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.49. Fortis has a one year low of C$65.27 and a one year high of C$82.87. The firm has a market cap of C$41.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.19, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.41.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported C$0.99 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of C$3.40 billion during the quarter. Fortis had a net margin of 14.75% and a return on equity of 7.51%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Fortis will post 3.3419913 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Fortis

In other news, insider James Reid sold 24,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$79.21, for a total transaction of C$1,956,487.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 31,283 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$2,477,926.43. This represents a 44.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Insiders have acquired a total of 572 shares of company stock valued at $45,909 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.