Fortis (TSE:FTS) Hits New 12-Month High – What’s Next?

Shares of Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as C$83.28 and last traded at C$83.16, with a volume of 72595 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at C$82.53.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on FTS shares. Desjardins lifted their price target on shares of Fortis from C$81.00 to C$85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of 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 downgraded shares of Fortis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. National Bank Financial boosted their target price on shares of 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. Finally, TD upped their price target on shares of Fortis from C$83.00 to C$84.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$79.68.

Fortis Trading Up 0.5%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 145.23, a current ratio of 0.49 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The company has a market capitalization of C$42.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.41. The business has a fifty day moving average price of C$79.54 and a 200 day moving average price of C$77.36.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported C$0.99 earnings per share (EPS) 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 for the quarter. On average, equities analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 3.3419913 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Dividend Announcement

The business 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 was Friday, May 15th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 74.04%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider James Reid sold 24,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$79.21, for a total transaction of C$1,956,487.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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. In the last quarter, insiders have bought 572 shares of company stock worth $45,909. 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.