Topic: How To Invest

Dividend Advisor Hotline – Friday, April 6, 2018

Article Excerpt

FORTIS INC., $42.94, Toronto symbol FTS, owns electrical utilities across Canada, the U.S. and the Caribbean. It also distributes natural gas in British Columbia. The company last raised its quarterly dividend with the December 2017 payment. Investors now receive $0.425 a share, up 6.25% from $0.40. The new annual rate of $1.70 yields 4.0%. The company has formed a new joint venture—Wataynikaneyap Power—that will connect 17 First Nations communities in northwestern Ontario to the province’s main electrical grid. Those communities own 51% of this partnership, with Fortis holding the other 49%. The $1.6 billion project will total 1,800 kilometres of power lines, and will take five years to complete. As a result, Fortis now expects to spend $15.1 billion on new projects and upgrades through 2022. That’s up $600 million from its previous forecast. To put those amounts in context, the company’s market cap (the total value of all outstanding shares) is $18.2 billion. Fortis has increased its dividend each year for the past 44…