Fortis (TSE:FTS) Sets New 1-Year High - Still a Buy?

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS - Get Free Report) hit a new 52-week high on Friday . The stock traded as high as C$62.32 and last traded at C$62.24, with a volume of 548728 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at C$61.76.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FTS has been the topic of several analyst reports. UBS Group upgraded Fortis to a "strong sell" rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Fortis from C$59.00 to C$61.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Fortis from C$52.00 to C$53.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Fortis from C$56.00 to C$63.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Raymond James increased their price target on shares of Fortis from C$59.00 to C$61.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of C$60.40.

Fortis Price Performance

The company's 50-day moving average price is C$60.28 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$56.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.59, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The company has a market capitalization of C$30.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.23.

Fortis (TSE:FTS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported C$0.67 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of C$0.65 by C$0.02. The business had revenue of C$2.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of C$2.71 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.35% and a return on equity of 7.44%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 3.3419913 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.35%. This is a positive change from Fortis's previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Fortis's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 77.12%.

Insider Activity at Fortis

In other Fortis news, Senior Officer James Reid sold 19,972 shares of Fortis stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of C$59.46, for a total value of C$1,187,493.18. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.