Fortis (NYSE:FTS) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) issued its earnings results on Tuesday. The utilities provider reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.26, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.01 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 13.90% and a return on equity of 7.04%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.63 EPS.

Fortis Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE:FTS opened at $43.86 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.58, a PEG ratio of 3.87 and a beta of 0.47. Fortis has a 52 week low of $36.86 and a 52 week high of $46.06. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $44.45 and a 200 day moving average of $41.92.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a $0.615 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $2.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.61%. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Fortis’s payout ratio is presently 72.46%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. UBS Group raised Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Raymond James cut shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com raised shares of Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 4th. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Fortis in a report on Friday, September 20th. They set an “underperform” rating on the stock. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortis presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce”.

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.