Analysts Set Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Target Price at C$60.33

Shares of Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” by the nine brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and six have given a hold recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$60.33.

FTS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Fortis from C$59.00 to C$61.00 in a report on Thursday, September 5th. UBS Group raised Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Bank of America set a C$60.00 price target on shares of Fortis and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$62.00 to C$65.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Raymond James lowered shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th.

Insider Transactions at Fortis

In other news, Director Gary Joseph Smith sold 21,716 shares of Fortis stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$61.45, for a total value of C$1,334,543.75. Also, Senior Officer Keri Linda Glitch bought 450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The shares were acquired at an average price of C$61.41 per share, with a total value of C$27,634.59. Following the purchase, the insider now owns 450 shares in the company, valued at C$27,634.59. This trade represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Fortis Trading Down 0.4 %

TSE FTS opened at C$60.05 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is C$61.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$58.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.59, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.69. Fortis has a twelve month low of C$51.02 and a twelve month high of C$63.75. The stock has a market cap of C$29.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.82, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.23.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Sunday, December 1st were issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 18th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 77.12%.

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.