Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS – Get Rating) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, September 30th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Thursday, November 17th will be given a dividend of 0.4116 per share by the utilities provider on Thursday, December 1st. This represents a $1.65 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.33%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 16th.

Fortis has increased its dividend by an average of 7.8% per year over the last three years. Fortis has a dividend payout ratio of 73.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Fortis to earn $2.25 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.66 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 73.8%.

Fortis Stock Down 1.8 %

NYSE:FTS traded down $0.71 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $38.00. The company had a trading volume of 60,845 shares, compared to its average volume of 677,100. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.26, a PEG ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 0.35. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $44.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $47.29. Fortis has a 12-month low of $38.63 and a 12-month high of $51.66. The company has a current ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortis

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Power Corp of Canada acquired a new position in Fortis in the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its position in Fortis by 9.9% in the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,569 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $177,000 after acquiring an additional 322 shares during the period. Brinker Capital Investments LLC acquired a new position in Fortis during the 1st quarter worth approximately $248,000. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP acquired a new position in Fortis during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $256,000. Finally, Walleye Trading LLC acquired a new position in Fortis during the 1st quarter worth approximately $388,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.38% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on FTS. UBS Group downgraded Fortis from a "neutral" rating to a "sell" rating and set a $56.00 price target for the company. in a report on Thursday, June 30th. Edward Jones downgraded Fortis from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortis has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $59.88.

About Fortis

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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 438,000 retail customers in southeastern Arizona; and 100,000 retail customers in Arizona's Mohave and Santa Cruz counties with an aggregate capacity of 3,485 megawatts (MW), including 53 MW of solar capacity and 252 MV of wind capacity.

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