Topic: How To Invest

The Successful Investor Hotline – Friday, May 3, 2019

Article Excerpt

FORTIS INC., $49.57, Toronto symbol FTS, is the main supplier of electrical power in Newfoundland and PEI. It also owns electrical utilities across Canada, the U.S. and the Caribbean. In addition, the company distributes natural gas in British Columbia, Arizona and New York State. In the three months ended March 31, 2019, earnings rose 10.9%, to $316 million from $297 million a year earlier. Due to more shares outstanding, earnings per share gained just 5.7%, to $0.74 from $0.70. Those results exclude losses on contracts that Fortis uses to hedge its exposure to natural gas prices and other unusual items. On that basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $0.73 a share. Revenue in the quarter gained 10.9%, to $2.44 billion from $2.20 billion. That also beat the consensus forecast of $2.36 billion. The improved results are mainly due to stronger earnings from Fortis’s U.S. operations, as well as the positive impact of currency rates. The company plans to spend $17.3 billion on…