Legal & General Group Plc lessened its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE - Free Report) by 17.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,255,336 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 923,715 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.74% of FirstEnergy worth $169,277,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Balanced Wealth Group LLC raised its holdings in FirstEnergy by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Balanced Wealth Group LLC now owns 26,991 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,074,000 after acquiring an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP increased its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 59.1% in the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 861 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group raised its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 5,146 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $205,000 after purchasing an additional 324 shares in the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 33.0% during the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,326 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 329 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Horizon Investments LLC grew its stake in FirstEnergy by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 7,290 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $287,000 after purchasing an additional 336 shares in the last quarter. 89.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
FE has been the topic of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $41.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. UBS Group upped their price target on FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Guggenheim lifted their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, April 7th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $48.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, FirstEnergy currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $45.17.
Get Our Latest Research Report on FirstEnergy
FirstEnergy Stock Performance
FirstEnergy stock traded up $0.08 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $41.20. 796,932 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,336,362. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $39.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $40.77. FirstEnergy Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $36.81 and a fifty-two week high of $44.97. The firm has a market cap of $23.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.58, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.41. 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 (NYSE:FE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.70 by ($0.03). FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 6.64%. The business had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.53 billion. On average, equities research analysts forecast that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 earnings per share for the current year.
FirstEnergy Increases Dividend
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 7th will be issued a $0.445 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 7th. This represents a $1.78 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.32%. This is an increase from FirstEnergy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. FirstEnergy's dividend payout ratio is presently 104.71%.
FirstEnergy Profile
(
Free Report)
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.
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