Meridian Wealth Management LLC Sells 8,586 Shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Meridian Wealth Management LLC trimmed its stake in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE - Free Report) by 8.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 90,129 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 8,586 shares during the period. Meridian Wealth Management LLC's holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $3,585,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of FirstEnergy in the 4th quarter worth $33,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in FirstEnergy by 123.6% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 14,821 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $590,000 after purchasing an additional 8,192 shares in the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in FirstEnergy by 555.8% during the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 8,663 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $345,000 after purchasing an additional 7,342 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC now owns 47,441 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,887,000 after purchasing an additional 644 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 19.5% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 3,556 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $141,000 after purchasing an additional 580 shares during the last quarter. 89.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $50.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Wolfe Research lowered FirstEnergy from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Guggenheim dropped their price objective on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $41.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, FirstEnergy currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $45.33.

FirstEnergy Stock Up 0.7 %

FE traded up $0.27 on Friday, hitting $38.54. The company had a trading volume of 8,998,953 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,010,447. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $40.00 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 0.56 and a quick ratio of 0.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.48. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 52-week low of $36.81 and a 52-week high of $44.97.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.70 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.53 billion. FirstEnergy had a net margin of 6.64% and a return on equity of 11.38%. As a group, equities analysts expect that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th were given a dividend of $0.425 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $1.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.41%. FirstEnergy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 100.00%.

FirstEnergy Profile

FirstEnergy Corp., through its subsidiaries, generates, transmits, and distributes electricity in the United States. It operates through Regulated Distribution and Regulated Transmission segments. The company owns and operates coal-fired, nuclear, hydroelectric, wind, and solar power generating facilities.