Fortis Inc. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.43 (NYSE:FTS)

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 14th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of 0.4324 per share by the utilities provider on Sunday, June 1st. This represents a $1.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th.

Fortis has raised its dividend by an average of 5.2% per year over the last three years. Fortis has a payout ratio of 69.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Fortis to earn $2.34 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 73.5%.

Fortis Trading Up 1.1 %

Fortis stock opened at $44.81 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market cap of $22.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.50. Fortis has a 1 year low of $36.86 and a 1 year high of $46.06. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $42.31 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $43.49.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Raymond James lowered shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Fortis in a research report on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

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.