BMO Capital Markets Boosts Fortis (TSE:FTS) Price Target to C$61.00

Fortis (TSE:FTS) had its target price increased by BMO Capital Markets from C$59.00 to C$61.00 in a report published on Thursday morning, BayStreet.CA reports.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on FTS. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Fortis from C$61.00 to C$62.00 and gave the company a sector perform rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$56.00 to C$59.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. CIBC boosted their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$57.00 to C$59.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Fortis from C$59.00 to C$61.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Fortis from C$52.00 to C$53.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of C$59.10.

Fortis Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of Fortis stock opened at C$60.52 on Thursday. 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 cap of C$29.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.97, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.22. The firm’s 50-day moving average is C$57.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is C$55.01. Fortis has a 1 year low of C$49.82 and a 1 year high of C$61.30.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported C$0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of C$0.65 by C$0.02. The company had revenue of C$2.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of C$2.71 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.35% and a return on equity of 7.44%. As a group, research analysts expect that Fortis will post 3.2439825 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Sunday, September 1st were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 20th. Fortis’s payout ratio is 73.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Senior Officer James Reid sold 19,972 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of C$59.46, for a total value of C$1,187,493.18. Corporate 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.