Scotiabank Has Bullish Estimate for Fortis FY2024 Earnings

Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) – Stock analysts at Scotiabank raised their FY2024 EPS estimates for shares of Fortis in a report released on Wednesday, January 8th. Scotiabank analyst R. Hope now anticipates that the company will earn $3.27 per share for the year, up from their prior forecast of $3.24. The consensus estimate for Fortis’ current full-year earnings is $3.34 per share. Scotiabank also issued estimates for Fortis’ FY2026 earnings at $3.51 EPS.

Several other analysts also recently commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Fortis from C$62.00 to C$65.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Raymond James downgraded Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. CIBC boosted their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$63.00 to C$64.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Bank of America set a C$60.00 target price on shares of Fortis and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and six have given a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$60.89.

Fortis Price Performance

Shares of TSE:FTS opened at C$60.25 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 128.59, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.69. Fortis has a one year low of C$51.02 and a one year high of C$63.75. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of C$61.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of C$59.21. The stock has a market capitalization of C$29.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.89, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.23.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Sunday, December 1st were issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 18th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.51%. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 77.12%.

Insider Activity at Fortis

In other Fortis news, Senior Officer Keri Linda Glitch bought 450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The stock was bought at an average price of C$61.41 per share, for a total transaction of C$27,634.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 450 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$27,634.59. The trade was a ∞ increase in their position. Also, Director Gary Joseph Smith sold 21,716 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$61.45, for a total transaction of C$1,334,543.75. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.