Fortis Q3 2026 Earnings: EPS Beat, 4% Dividend Raise, $32.2 Billion Plan
Fortis Inc. (TSX/NYSE: FTS) earned $0.92 per common share in the third quarter of 2026, about four cents above the $0.8824 ten analysts carried into the print, per Yahoo Finance consensus pulled November 1. Reported and adjusted EPS are the same figure this time, because Fortis booked no adjusting items in the period. But the Fortis Q3 2026 earnings release carried something bigger than the quarter: a five-year capital plan of $32.2 billion, $3.4 billion larger than the one it replaces.
That is an 11.8% increase in the program that drives rate base, and in a regulated utility rate base drives earnings. Guided midyear rate base now runs from $45.3 billion in 2026 to $63.9 billion by 2031, at a five-year compound rate Fortis puts at 7.5% against 7% before, both the company’s own figures at a constant exchange rate and neither derived from those endpoints. Dividend guidance of 4% to 6% a year now runs to 2031, a year further than before.
Our Fortis Q3 preview closed by naming what this release had to settle: the next plan step, whether the growth rate held, how much of any increase was currency, and where common equity comes from. All four are answered.
The plan extended, the growth rate rose, and none of the increase is currency
Fortis went from a $26.0 billion plan to $28.8 billion a year ago, a step of $2.8 billion, and now to $32.2 billion, a step of $3.4 billion. The guided five-year rate base CAGR moved the same way, from 7.0% in the prior plan, set out in the 2025 Annual MD&A inside the Fortis fourth quarter and annual 2025 release, to 7.5% here.
The $3.4 billion is two things: about $2.7 billion of upward revision to the four years both plans cover, and $0.7 billion from the window rolling, as 2031 enters at $6.3 billion and 2026 drops out at $5.6 billion.
None of it is currency, the cleanest of the four answers. Both plans assume the same US dollar to Canadian dollar rate of 1.35, each saying so in its own footnote. Last year was different: Fortis attributed about $0.6 billion of that $2.8 billion step to the assumed rate moving up to 1.35. There is no equivalent sentence this time, because the rate did not move.
The current year did move. Fortis now expects about $6.0 billion of capital spending in 2026 against the $5.6 billion disclosed a year ago, roughly 7% more, on acceleration of MISO tranche 1 transmission work at ITC and Tilbury 1B at FortisBC Energy, plus a 1.38 assumed rate for the year. That leaves the five-year plan struck three cents below the rate the company applies to 2026, worth roughly $0.5 billion on the plan’s stated sensitivity of about $0.8 billion per five-cent move. Nothing sits outside the plan on that account: the same investment restates higher at 1.38, as a sensitivity rather than a forecast.
Every year the two plans share is larger in the new one
| Capital spending, C$ billions | 2026-2030 plan | 2027-2031 plan |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 5.6 | |
| 2027 | 5.9 | 6.3 |
| 2028 | 5.6 | 6.4 |
| 2029 | 6.2 | 6.8 |
| 2030 | 5.5 | 6.4 |
| 2031 | 6.3 | |
| Total | 28.8 | 32.2 |
Sources: Fortis 2025 Annual MD&A p22 and the September 30, 2026 Quarter Report p18.
Transmission takes 47% of the new plan, and ITC alone rises from 34% of it to 36%.
The equity funding language changed, and the shelf is tighter than the program
A year ago common equity was “expected to be provided by” the DRIP and the $500 million at-the-market program “has not been utilized to date”. Now equity is “predominantly supported by” the DRIP, and the program has been drawn: 3.4 million shares at an average of $77.17, about $263 million, alongside US$1.0 billion of junior subordinated notes in September. As at September 30, $237 million remained under the program but only $98 million under the base shelf prospectus it draws on, and the program runs to January 10, 2027. Fortis intends to file a new shelf and re-establish the ATM in early 2027.
The quarter beat, and the gap to earnings growth is the share count
Revenue of $3,115 million rose 6.0% from $2,938 million in the Fortis Inc. September 30, 2026 Quarter Report. Common equity earnings were $474 million against $409 million reported and $441 million adjusted, so adjusted earnings grew 7.5% while adjusted EPS grew 5.7%. The difference is dilution: weighted average shares rose 1.7% to 513.1 million, which Fortis attributes to the DRIP and the at-the-market program. The beat is on a clean basis, since the panel’s year-ago figure of $0.87 is Fortis’s own adjusted Q3 2025 EPS.
The nine months read differently. Adjusted EPS of $2.69 against $2.63 is a step of 2.3%, on revenue of $9,449 million against $9,091 million, so the quarter’s 5.7% runs ahead of the year. The filing names what held the year back: lower margin on wholesale sales at UNS Energy, and a lower US dollar to Canadian dollar rate, which it says also moderated year-to-date earnings growth. Fortis puts the 2025 disposals at $0.02 of dilution in the quarter and $0.05 year to date.
Set against the eight quarters of reported basic EPS Fortis prints in its own summary, $0.92 is the third-highest, and the highest of any quarter in that table that is not a March quarter. The series starts at $0.79 for the December 2024 quarter and runs $1.00, $0.76, $0.81, $0.83, $0.99, $0.78 and $0.92. Fortis explains the shape: its utilities in Canada and New York tend to earn most in the first and fourth quarters on space heating, while UNS Energy in Arizona tends to earn most in the second and third on cooling.
The regulated utilities did the work. UNS Energy at $225 million against $209 million and ITC at $167 million against $149 million supplied $34 million of the $41 million increase in a regulated total that reached $540 million from $499 million. Other Electric, which held FortisTCI and Belize Electricity before their 2025 sales, was the only segment to fall, to $36 million from $41 million.
Operating cash flow rose 26.7% to $1,301 million on four causes Fortis names: higher cash earnings from rate base growth, the sale of investment tax credits at UNS Energy, the timing of flow-through costs in customer rates, and higher deposits received at FortisBC Energy for Eagle Mountain construction. Two of those four read to us as timing rather than earnings power.
What a 7.5% plan converts into per share
Rate base is guided to compound at 7.5%, equity keeps coming predominantly from the DRIP, and the resulting share count stands between earnings growth and per-share growth. In the quarter, shares rose 1.7% and 7.5% adjusted earnings growth arrived as 5.7% per share. Over the nine months the same calculation is weaker: adjusted earnings of $1,371 million against $1,324 million is 3.5%, and adjusted EPS 2.3%. The quarter is the stronger window. Carry both forward on our arithmetic and a plan this size funded this way lands per-share growth between roughly 2% and the high fives, a range whose low end sits below the 4% to 6% dividend band and whose high end sits inside it.
The quarter’s 7.5% earnings growth matching the plan’s 7.5% rate base CAGR is coincidence rather than mechanism: regulatory lag, the allowed return on equity and permitted equity thickness all sit in between.
ITC’s allowed return is the risk the filing quantifies itself
A 2021 FERC supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking proposes to eliminate the 50 basis point regional transmission organization ROE incentive adder for members of more than three years. Fortis states the exposure itself: “Although the timing and outcome of this proceeding are unknown, every 10-basis point change in ROE at ITC impacts Fortis’ annual EPS by approximately $0.015.” On our arithmetic the full 50 basis points is about 7.5 cents of annual EPS, against a full-year consensus near $3.61. The sensitivity has also grown: our preview quoted $0.01 from the June 30, 2026 Quarter Report, and this release puts it at $0.015. The concentration that makes the transmission story work makes a single FERC proceeding matter more.
The filing names a second offset in both the quarter and the nine months: “costs associated with Rate Base growth not yet reflected in customer rates”. Spending ahead of the rates that recover it is the price of growing rate base quickly, and it is what would pull per-share growth toward the low end of that range.
The dividend rose about 4% and the streak reached 53 years
Fortis declared a fourth quarter dividend of $0.665 per share on November 2, payable December 1, taking the run of annual increases to 53 consecutive years. The company calls it “up approximately 4%” from the $0.640 paid in the third quarter. On the arithmetic it is a 3.9% step, the smallest of the three most recent, though the 4% to 6% guidance is for annual growth rather than any single quarterly step. By our arithmetic the new rate annualises to $2.66, a forward yield of 3.17% at $83.82. A 53-year streak is the kind of record our list of the best Canadian dividend stocks ranks on.
A correction to our preview on adjusted EPS
Our November 2 preview said Fortis publishes no adjusted EPS. The narrower truth: the most recent filing when we wrote, the Q2 2026 interim MD&A, carried a non-GAAP section covering capital expenditures alone, because that period had no adjusting items. What we got wrong was the attribution. The preview built a four-row table headed “Street basis”, and three of those rows we can set against a Fortis document are the company’s own adjusted basic EPS: $0.83 for Q4 2024, $0.87 for Q3 2025 and $0.90 for Q4 2025. So is the $3.53 we called the Street’s year-ago full-year figure, which is Fortis’s FY2025 adjusted basic EPS against $3.40 reported.
The warning attached to it holds, because page 1 of this release prints both bases on the same quarter. The $0.92 is up from $0.81 reported, a gain of $0.11 or 13.6%, and up from $0.87 adjusted, a gain of 5.7%. Take the first comparison for the second and you more than double the growth rate, the trap we flagged. Our guide to how to analyse a company’s financials covers reading an adjusted figure against a reported one.
Arizona has recommended, not decided
In October 2026 an Arizona Corporation Commission Administrative Law Judge recommended a 9.65% allowed return on common equity and a 55.5% common equity component for Tucson Electric Power. The same commission approved 9.61% on a 56% equity component for UNS Gas in February 2026, though one distributes gas and the other sells electricity. Approval is still pending, and Fortis anticipates it later this month; the schedule our preview reported set a final decision by November 17.
The market is giving it a modest yes so far
FTS.TO traded at $83.82, up 1.05% from the previous close of $82.95, as of 12:44 p.m. Eastern, live intraday prices from Yahoo Finance rather than closes, which puts the shares above their 52-week high of $83.75. Utilities caught a bid on a down tape: the S&P/TSX Composite was off 0.61% at 35,582.18 while the iShares S&P/TSX Capped Utilities Index ETF rose 0.58% to $36.18, with Canadian Utilities up 0.64%, Hydro One up 0.07% and Emera down 0.16%. Fortis outran both the index and its own sector.
It also leaves the shares above the mean analyst target of $81.18 and the median of $82.00 from the November 1 pull, which is where the tension sits for new money.
Disclaimer: The content on bestcanadianstocks.ca is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Always consult a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions. Every Fortis company figure in this piece is the company’s own. The quarter, the new 2027-2031 capital plan, the dividend declaration, the segment results, the eight-quarter EPS series, the funding disclosures and the ITC regulatory sensitivity all come from Fortis Inc.’s September 30, 2026 Quarter Report, the single combined PDF carrying the news release, the interim MD&A and the condensed consolidated interim financial statements, cited by page. The prior five-year plan, its 1.35 exchange-rate assumption, the 0.6 billion of currency in last year’s step and the prior adjusted EPS series come from the 2025 Annual MD&A inside Fortis’s fourth quarter and annual 2025 release, also cited by page. Analyst consensus, the analyst price targets and the 52-week range are Yahoo Finance, labelled as such and used for nothing else. Share prices and index levels are a single intraday snapshot taken from Yahoo Finance at 12:44 p.m. Eastern on November 3, 2026 and held fixed for every figure in this piece, so they are live intraday prices rather than closing prices. The 52-week high is a prior-session measure. Bloomberg is credited in plain text as the source Fortis itself names for its total shareholder returns. The forward yield, the per-share growth illustration, the 7.5 cents of annual EPS implied by the full 50 basis point adder, the roughly 0.5 billion restatement at 1.38 and the split of the 3.4 billion plan increase into revision and window roll are our arithmetic on the company’s own published figures and are labelled as ours.
