Fortis (TSE:FTS) Sets New 52-Week High – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as C$82.67 and last traded at C$82.09, with a volume of 1505144 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at C$82.57.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on FTS shares. Barclays reduced 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 report on Friday, May 8th. TD raised their target price on Fortis from C$83.00 to C$84.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. National Bank Financial boosted their target price on Fortis from C$75.00 to C$82.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Finally, Raymond James Financial upped their price target on Fortis from C$78.50 to C$80.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$79.32.

Fortis Price Performance

The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is C$78.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$76.14. The company has a market cap of C$41.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.97, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 145.23, a current ratio of 0.49 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported C$0.99 EPS for the quarter. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.51% and a net margin of 14.75%.The business had revenue of C$3.40 billion for the quarter. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortis Inc. will post 3.3419913 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 1st were given a dividend of $0.64 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $2.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.2%. Fortis’s payout ratio is 74.04%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider James Reid sold 421 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$79.05, for a total transaction of C$33,280.05. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 31,283 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$2,472,921.15. This trade represents a 1.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Company Profile

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.