FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) to Issue $0.43 Quarterly Dividend

FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, December 18th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be given a dividend of 0.425 per share by the utilities provider on Saturday, March 1st. This represents a $1.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.34%.

FirstEnergy has increased its dividend by an average of 0.4% per year over the last three years. FirstEnergy has a dividend payout ratio of 59.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect FirstEnergy to earn $2.90 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.70 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 58.6%.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

FE stock traded down $0.70 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $39.14. The stock had a trading volume of 3,583,645 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,901,583. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $41.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58. FirstEnergy has a 52 week low of $35.41 and a 52 week high of $44.97.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.90 by ($0.05). FirstEnergy had a net margin of 6.64% and a return on equity of 11.38%. The firm had revenue of $3.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.96 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.88 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that FirstEnergy will post 2.68 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Scotiabank upgraded shares of FirstEnergy from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $45.00 to $50.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Argus raised FirstEnergy from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $50.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, September 20th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on FirstEnergy from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an "underperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on FirstEnergy in a research report on Monday, October 14th. They issued a "hold" rating and a $46.00 target price for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $46.27.

FirstEnergy Company 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.