Brokerages Set Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Price Target at C$60.89

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) has been assigned an average rating of “Reduce” from the nine research firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and six have assigned a hold rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$60.89.

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. CIBC raised their price target on Fortis from C$63.00 to C$64.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Bank of America set a C$60.00 price target on Fortis and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Fortis from C$62.00 to C$65.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Raymond James cut Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th.

Fortis Trading Up 2.3 %

Shares of FTS stock opened at C$60.13 on Tuesday. Fortis has a fifty-two week low of C$51.02 and a fifty-two week high of C$63.75. The stock has a market cap of C$29.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.85, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.23. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of C$60.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of C$59.37. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.59.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Sunday, December 1st were paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.52%. This is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 18th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 77.12%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortis news, Director Gary Joseph Smith sold 21,716 shares of the firm’s 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. Also, Senior Officer Jocelyn Perry sold 11,809 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$63.19, for a total value of C$746,178.83. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.