Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Given Average Rating of “Reduce” by Analysts

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

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Fortis from C$62.00 to C$65.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Fortis from C$59.00 to C$61.00 in a report on Thursday, September 5th. UBS Group raised shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. National Bankshares increased their price target on Fortis from C$56.00 to C$62.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$56.00 to C$63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of FTS opened at C$62.59 on Monday. Fortis has a 12-month low of C$51.02 and a 12-month high of C$63.40. The business’s fifty day moving average price is C$61.30 and its 200 day moving average price is C$58.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.59, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market capitalization of C$30.99 billion, a PE ratio of 19.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.23.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Sunday, December 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.30%. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 77.12%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Senior Officer Jocelyn Perry sold 11,809 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$63.19, for a total transaction of C$746,178.83. Also, 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. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.