News

Fortis Inc. FTS is benefiting from efficiently managing its resources and providing quality and reliable services to customers.

Let’s focus on the factors that make this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock a strong investment pick at the moment.

Estimates Moving North

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s earnings for 2024 and 2025 reflects year-over-year growth of 2.2% and 2.7%, respectively.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s sales for 2024 and 2025 reflects year-over-year growth of 0.4% and 0.6%, respectively.

Surprise History & Long-Term Earnings Growth

Fortis’ trailing four-quarter earnings surprise is 4.2%, on average.

Its long-term (three to five years) earnings growth is currently pegged at 6%.

Dividend Yield

Fortis, which has a history of 50 years of consecutive dividend payment increase, has pledged to grow dividends annually in the range of 4-6%, on average, through 2028. The company has a dividend yield of 4.38%, much better than the industry’s yield of 3.72%.

Capital Investment Plan

For the 2024-2028 period, the company expects to make investments of $25 billion. Out of the total investment, $4.8 billion is planned for 2024. The majority of its planned capital expenditure will be directed to strengthen regulated electric and gas operations. The company’s rate base is expected to grow from $37 billion to $49.4 billion in six years starting from 2023.

Solvency

Amid still high interest rates, the ability of a company to meet its interest obligation can be measured through its times interest earned (TIE) ratio. TIE of Fortis at the end of first-quarter 2024 was 2.6, which indicates that the company has enough ability to timely address its interest obligations.

Price Movement

In the past three months, the stock has gained 2.7% compared with the industry’s 0.3% rally.

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Other Stocks to Consider

Other top-ranked stocks in the same sector include Consolidated Edison ED, FirstEnergy FE and Entergy ETR, each carrying a Zacks Rank of 2 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Long-term (three to five years) earnings growth for Consolidated Edison, FirstEnergy and Entergy is currently projected at 7.4%, 5.9% and 7.3%, respectively.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 earnings for ED, FE and ETR has moved up 5.1%, 5.1% and 6.6% year over year, respectively.

Zacks Names "Single Best Pick to Double"

From thousands of stocks, 5 Zacks experts each have chosen their favorite to skyrocket +100% or more in months to come. From those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian hand-picks one to have the most explosive upside of all.

It’s a little-known chemical company that’s up 65% over last year, yet still dirt cheap. With unrelenting demand, soaring 2022 earnings estimates, and $1.5 billion for repurchasing shares, retail investors could jump in at any time.

This company could rival or surpass other recent Zacks’ Stocks Set to Double like Boston Beer Company which shot up +143.0% in little more than 9 months and NVIDIA which boomed +175.9% in one year.

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Entergy Corporation (ETR) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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Zacks Investment Research

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.