Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) Receives Average Recommendation of "Reduce" from Brokerages

Shares of Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS - Get Free Report) have earned an average rating of "Reduce" from the eight ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and six have issued a hold recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$60.89.

Several research firms have recently issued reports on FTS. CIBC lifted their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$63.00 to C$64.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Raymond James cut shares of Fortis from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th.

Insider Activity

In related news, Senior Officer Jocelyn Perry sold 11,809 shares of Fortis stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$63.19, for a total value of C$746,178.83. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company's stock.

Fortis Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of Fortis stock traded up C$0.17 during trading on Friday, hitting C$62.76. 1,741,177 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,519,397. The stock has a market cap of C$31.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.23. The firm's 50-day moving average price is C$60.72 and its 200 day moving average price is C$60.36. Fortis has a 12-month low of C$51.02 and a 12-month high of C$63.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.59, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Saturday, March 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.615 per share. This represents a $2.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. Fortis's dividend payout ratio is currently 77.12%.

About Fortis

Fortis owns and operates 10 utility transmission and distribution assets in Canada and the United States, serving more than 3.4 million electricity and gas customers. The company has smaller stakes in electricity generation and several Caribbean utilities. ITC operates electric transmission in seven U.S.