Fortis Inc. to Post Q2 2024 Earnings of $0.47 Per Share, Raymond James Forecasts (NYSE:FTS)

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) – Equities researchers at Raymond James cut their Q2 2024 earnings per share estimates for shares of Fortis in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, April 25th. Raymond James analyst D. Quezada now expects that the utilities provider will post earnings of $0.47 per share for the quarter, down from their previous estimate of $0.48. The consensus estimate for Fortis’ current full-year earnings is $2.39 per share. Raymond James also issued estimates for Fortis’ Q3 2024 earnings at $0.58 EPS, Q4 2024 earnings at $0.63 EPS, FY2024 earnings at $2.33 EPS, Q1 2025 earnings at $0.69 EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at $0.50 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $0.61 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $0.64 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $2.43 EPS.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.39 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 7.00%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.53 EPS.

Separately, StockNews.com lowered Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.13.

Fortis Stock Performance

FTS opened at $39.06 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $39.96. Fortis has a 52-week low of $36.30 and a 52-week high of $46.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.25 billion, a PE ratio of 16.98, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.42.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortis

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,842,130 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $816,107,000 after purchasing an additional 421,120 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd grew its stake in Fortis by 33.8% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 19,477,406 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $801,263,000 after buying an additional 4,924,031 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in Fortis by 22.3% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 13,380,619 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $553,145,000 after acquiring an additional 2,438,223 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its position in Fortis by 11.4% during the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 12,664,645 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $481,130,000 after acquiring an additional 1,294,939 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Fortis by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 8,080,594 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $332,583,000 after acquiring an additional 561,176 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a $0.4382 dividend. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.49%. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is presently 55.65%.

Fortis Company Profile

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.