Fortis (TSE:FTS) Shares Cross Above 200 Day Moving Average – Here’s Why

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) crossed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Wednesday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of C$59.85 and traded as high as C$61.91. Fortis shares last traded at C$60.98, with a volume of 1,601,934 shares traded.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on FTS. CIBC upped their price target on Fortis from C$63.00 to C$64.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Raymond James lowered Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Fortis from C$62.00 to C$65.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and six have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$60.89.

Fortis Price Performance

The company has a 50-day moving average of C$60.86 and a 200-day moving average of C$59.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.59, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.69. The stock has a market cap of C$30.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.12, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.23.

Fortis (TSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported C$0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of C$0.81 by C$0.04. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.44% and a net margin of 14.35%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.84 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Fortis Inc. will post 3.3419913 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Sunday, December 1st were issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.44%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 18th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 77.12%.

Insider Activity at Fortis

In other news, Senior Officer Keri Linda Glitch bought 450 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were bought at an average price of C$61.41 per share, with a total value of C$27,634.59. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now owns 450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$27,634.59. This trade represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. Also, Director Gary Joseph Smith sold 21,716 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$61.45, for a total value of C$1,334,543.75. Company 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.