Fortis (NYSE:FTS) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) announced its earnings results on Friday. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02, Zacks reports. Fortis had a net margin of 14.06% and a return on equity of 7.01%. The company had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.08 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.72 EPS.

Fortis Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of FTS stock traded up $0.49 on Friday, hitting $44.81. 7,646,555 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 389,661. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $42.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $43.51. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $22.37 billion, a PE ratio of 18.83, a PEG ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.50. Fortis has a twelve month low of $36.86 and a twelve month high of $46.06.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.4324 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.73 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.86%. Fortis’s payout ratio is 79.41%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Raymond James cut shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Fortis in a research note on Thursday. They set 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average 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.