Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.43

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 14th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of 0.4324 per share by the utilities provider on Sunday, June 1st. This represents a $1.73 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th.

Fortis has raised its dividend by an average of 5.2% annually over the last three years. Fortis has a payout ratio of 70.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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

NYSE:FTS traded down $1.26 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $43.19. The stock had a trading volume of 144,534 shares, compared to its average volume of 621,372. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.34 and a 200-day simple moving average of $43.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.16, a P/E/G ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.50. Fortis has a 52 week low of $36.86 and a 52 week high of $46.06.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.01% and a net margin of 14.06%. The company had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.08 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.72 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Fortis will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FTS has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Fortis in a report on Thursday, February 13th. They issued a "hold" rating for the company. Raymond James lowered shares of Fortis from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note 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 MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus 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.