Updating your Income-Growth Payers: Fortis

Article Excerpt

FORTIS INC. $54 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol FTS; Income-Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 490.6 million; Market cap: $26.5 billion; Dividend yield: 4.4%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Highest; www.fortisinc.com) began supplying electricity to St. John’s, Newfoundland, in 1885. It is now the main power utility in that province and PEI. It serves 3.5 million customers in five provinces, 10 U.S. states, and three Caribbean countries. The U.S. accounts for 56% of its revenue, followed by Canada with 39%, and the Caribbean with 5%. The company last raised your quarterly dividend with the December 2023 payment to $0.59 a share, up 4.4% from $0.565. Fortis’s new annual rate of $2.36 yields a solid 4.4%. The company has now increased its annual payout for 50 consecutive years. In the quarter ended December 31, 2023, Fortis’s revenue decreased 8.9%, to $2.89 billion from $3.17 billion a year earlier. Higher power rates offset the impact of the November 2023 sale of its Aitken Creek underground natural gas storage…