Fortis Inc. to Post FY2024 Earnings of $2.34 Per Share, Raymond James Forecasts (NYSE:FTS)

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) – Investment analysts at Raymond James upped their FY2024 EPS estimates for Fortis in a research note issued on Wednesday, May 1st. Raymond James analyst D. Quezada now forecasts that the utilities provider will post earnings per share of $2.34 for the year, up from their prior forecast of $2.33. The consensus estimate for Fortis’ current full-year earnings is $2.35 per share. Raymond James also issued estimates for Fortis’ Q4 2024 earnings at $0.62 EPS.

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

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of FTS stock opened at $40.07 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 0.60. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $39.95. Fortis has a 52 week low of $36.30 and a 52 week high of $46.28. The firm has a market cap of $19.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.42.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01. Fortis had a net margin of 13.66% and a return on equity of 7.02%. The firm had revenue of $2.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.53 earnings per share.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in Fortis by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 651,017 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $24,732,000 after buying an additional 13,925 shares during the last quarter. Forsta AP Fonden lifted its holdings in Fortis by 13.1% in the third quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 149,200 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,693,000 after acquiring an additional 17,300 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its holdings in Fortis by 23.6% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 109,641 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,184,000 after acquiring an additional 20,918 shares during the period. Value Partners Investments Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortis by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Value Partners Investments Inc. now owns 128,215 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,892,000 after purchasing an additional 1,321 shares during the period. Finally, Advisor Partners II LLC increased its position in shares of Fortis by 37.3% during the 3rd quarter. Advisor Partners II LLC now owns 11,367 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $432,000 after purchasing an additional 3,087 shares during the last quarter. 57.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.4382 per share. This is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.37%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 55.17%.

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.