Desjardins Boosts Fortis (TSE:FTS) Price Target to C$81.00

Fortis (TSE:FTS) had its target price hoisted by equities researchers at Desjardins from C$79.00 to C$81.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,BayStreet.CA reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Desjardins’ price objective points to a potential upside of 4.62% from the company’s previous close.

FTS has been the topic of a number of other reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Fortis from C$74.00 to C$77.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Fortis from C$72.00 to C$70.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce upped their price target on Fortis from C$75.00 to C$76.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. National Bank Financial raised their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$68.00 to C$72.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, TD Securities upped their target price on shares of Fortis from C$77.00 to C$79.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of C$75.65.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of TSE FTS opened at C$77.42 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is C$71.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$70.92. Fortis has a 52 week low of C$60.94 and a 52 week high of C$77.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 142.31, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market cap of C$39.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.04, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.35.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The company reported C$0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.48% and a net margin of 14.53%.The firm had revenue of C$3.08 billion during the quarter. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Fortis will post 3.3419913 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Key Fortis News

Here are the key news stories impacting Fortis this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 earnings beat — Fortis reported C$0.90 EPS and C$3.08B revenue; commentary pointed to strong regulated utility growth and asset expansion. Fortis beats Q4 earnings expectations
• Positive Sentiment: Quarterly dividend declared — C$0.64 per share (annualized yield ~3.3%); ex-dividend date Feb 17, record date Mar 1. Income investors may favor the stock on the payout stability.
• Positive Sentiment: Desjardins raised its target to C$81 and kept a “buy” rating (largest upside among recent raises). BayStreet.CA
• Positive Sentiment: Raymond James raised its target to C$78.50 and kept an “outperform” rating, signaling continued bullish analyst view. BayStreet.CA TickerReport
• Neutral Sentiment: RBC and Scotiabank raised targets to C$80 (both keep “sector perform”) — modest upside but not full upgrades. BayStreet.CA
• Negative Sentiment: BMO lifted its target to C$77 and maintains a “market perform” rating — the target sits slightly below the recent price, implying limited upside/neutral-to-slightly-negative near term. BayStreet.CA

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. states, with more than 16,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines in operation serving a peak load in excess of 23 gigawatts.