By Robb M. Stewart

Fortis bumped up its dividend and unveiled an expanded capital plan after the Canadian utility logged a rise in revenue for the third quarter.

The holding company, which has electricity and natural gas operations in North America and the Caribbean, said its net earnings fell to 409 million Canadian dollars ($291 million), or C$0.81 a share, in the three months through September from C$420 million, or C$0.85, a year earlier. The result was squeezed by C$32 million in closing costs for the sale of a Caribbean business and by income taxes.

On an adjusted basis to strip out the sale, per-share earnings rose to C$0.87, beating the C$0.85 mean estimate of analysts polled by FactSet.

Revenue for the quarter was up 6% at C$2.94 billion thanks to rate base growth, higher flow-through costs in customer rates and increased customer delivery rates. Fortis also saw a higher U.S. dollar to Canadian dollar exchange rate for the quarter

The St. John's, Newfoundland, utility operator said it will increase its dividend payout for the final quarter of the year by 4.1% to C$0.64 a share. The company has increased dividends for 52 consecutive years.

Also on Tuesday, Fortis said it plans its largest five-year capital plan, totaling C$28.8 billion. That marks an increase of C$2.8 billion over its prior plan, driven higher transmission investments at ITC, one of the largest independent electricity transmissions companies in the U.S., as well as customer growth and investments across its utilities.

Fortis said the plan, which it aims to fund primarily from cash from operations and regulated debt, extends rate base growth and supports annual dividend growth of 4% to 6% through 2030. It said it expects its midyear rate base--the value of assets on which a utility is permitted to earn a regulatory approved rate of return--to rise to C$57.9 million by 2030 from C$41.9 billion in 2025.

Capital expenditures for 2025 are expected to be C$5.6 billion, up from an earlier target of C$5.2 billion, thanks to an acceleration of investments at ITC. It said its capital expenditures for the first nine months of this year at C$4.2 billion, 75% of its annual forecast, are C$600 million higher than the same period last year.

In move to strengthen its balance sheet, Fortis in September sold its electric utility in the Turks and Caicos Islands to private-equity firm Vision Ridge Partners. In October, Fortis exited its assets in Belize.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 04, 2025 06:52 ET (11:52 GMT)

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