Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Plans $0.44 Quarterly Dividend

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, December 6th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of 0.4382 per share by the utilities provider on Saturday, March 1st. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.91%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th.

Fortis has increased its dividend by an average of 5.2% annually over the last three years. Fortis has a payout ratio of 70.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Fortis to earn $2.34 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.73 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 73.9%.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of FTS stock opened at $44.81 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $42.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $43.51. The firm has a market cap of $22.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.83, a PEG ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.50. Fortis has a 1 year low of $36.86 and a 1 year high of $46.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.74.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.08 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.01% and a net margin of 14.06%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.72 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Fortis will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on FTS. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Fortis in a report on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Raymond James lowered Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold”.

Fortis Company Profile

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.