Fortis (NYSE:FTS) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.26, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.01 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 13.90% and a return on equity of 7.04%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.63 EPS.

Fortis Stock Performance

FTS stock traded up $0.27 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $43.86. 530,835 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 700,873. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $44.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.92. The firm has a market cap of $21.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.58, a PEG ratio of 3.87 and a beta of 0.47. 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 1.26, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.58.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a $0.615 dividend. This represents a $2.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.61%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 72.46%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on FTS shares. UBS Group raised Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Raymond James downgraded shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Fortis in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They set an “underperform” rating for the company. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Fortis presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce”.

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.