Pierre Blouin Acquires 141 Shares of Fortis (TSE:FTS) Stock

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Director Pierre Blouin bought 141 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of C$81.69 per share, for a total transaction of C$11,518.29. Following the purchase, the director owned 1,998 shares in the company, valued at C$163,216.62. This represents a 7.59% increase in their position.

Fortis Stock Performance

TSE FTS opened at C$81.88 on Friday. The company has a market cap of C$41.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.15, 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. The stock has a 50-day moving average of C$78.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of C$76.26. Fortis Inc. has a 1-year low of C$63.54 and a 1-year high of C$82.67.

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

Fortis Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 1st were issued a dividend of $0.64 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $2.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is 74.04%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTS has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. TD upped their price objective 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. Raymond James Financial lifted their target price on Fortis from C$78.50 to C$80.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. 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, Barclays cut their price target on Fortis from C$84.00 to C$83.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortis has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$79.32.

About Fortis

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.