Fortis Inc. (FTS) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.62 on December 1st

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, September 26th,Zacks Dividends reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a dividend of 0.615 per share by the utilities provider on Sunday, December 1st. This represents a $2.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. This is a positive change from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43.

Fortis has raised its dividend payment by an average of 5.7% per year over the last three years. Fortis has a payout ratio of 72.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Fortis to earn $2.41 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.77 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 73.4%.

Fortis Trading Down 0.2 %

NYSE FTS opened at $44.17 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $44.41 and its 200 day moving average price is $42.14. Fortis has a 12 month low of $36.86 and a 12 month high of $46.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The company has a market capitalization of $21.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.47.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.26. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.03% and a net margin of 14.06%. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.01 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.63 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Fortis will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on FTS. StockNews.com raised Fortis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 4th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Fortis to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Fortis in a research report on Friday, September 20th. They set an “underperform” rating on the stock. Finally, Raymond James cut shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortis has a consensus rating of “Reduce”.

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.