Fortis (FTS) Set to Announce Earnings on Wednesday

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) is set to post its quarterly earnings results before the market opens on Wednesday, May 1st. Analysts expect Fortis to post earnings of $0.68 per share for the quarter. Investors interested in registering for the company’s conference call can do so using this link.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last posted its earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.39 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 7.00%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.53 EPS. On average, analysts expect Fortis to post $2 EPS for the current fiscal year and $2 EPS for the next fiscal year.

Fortis Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of Fortis stock opened at $39.10 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.28 billion, a PE ratio of 17.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. Fortis has a twelve month low of $36.30 and a twelve month high of $46.28. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $39.08 and its 200 day moving average price is $39.98.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.4382 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.48%. This is an increase from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 55.65%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com cut shares of Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortis currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.13.

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.