Fortis (TSE:FTS) Hits New 1-Year High – Time to Buy?

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as C$82.50 and last traded at C$81.58, with a volume of 320741 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at C$80.85.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on FTS shares. Barclays cut their target price on Fortis from C$84.00 to C$83.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 8th. National Bank Financial lifted their price target on Fortis from C$75.00 to C$82.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Raymond James Financial increased their price objective on Fortis from C$78.50 to C$80.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Finally, TD lifted their target price on shares of Fortis from C$83.00 to C$84.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. One 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortis has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$79.32.

Fortis Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of C$41.66 billion, a PE ratio of 24.14, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a current ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 145.23. The company’s 50 day moving average price is C$78.28 and its 200-day moving average price is C$76.30.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported C$0.99 earnings per share 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. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Fortis Inc. will post 3.3419913 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 1st were paid a $0.64 dividend. This represents a $2.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. Fortis’s payout ratio is currently 74.04%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider James Reid sold 421 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$79.05, for a total transaction of C$33,280.05. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 31,283 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$2,472,921.15. The trade was a 1.33% decrease in their position. In the last three months, insiders bought 572 shares of company stock worth $45,909. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.