New assets will fuel Fortis

Article Excerpt

FORTIS INC. $57 is your #1 Income Buy for 2021. The company (Toronto symbol FTS; Conservative & Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 472.9 million; Market cap: $27.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.9; Dividend yield 3.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.fortisinc.com) is the main supplier of electrical power in Newfoundland and PEI. Fortis 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. Fortis now plans to spend $20.0 billion on projects and upgrades to existing operations between 2022 and 2026. The company expects its new investments will lift its rate base (the value of Fortis’s assets) by 33.3%, from $31.2 billion in 2021 to $41.6 billion by 2026. Regulators use rate base to calculate a utility’s approved rate of return and its power rates for customers. The extra cash flow from those new projects will also let the company increase your annual dividend rate by about 6% each year through…