National Bank of Canada FI Trims Stake in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

National Bank of Canada FI decreased its position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE - Free Report) by 26.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 240,178 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 86,686 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI's holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $9,554,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of FE. Boston Partners boosted its stake in FirstEnergy by 73.5% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 16,503,080 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $656,309,000 after acquiring an additional 6,991,866 shares in the last quarter. Amundi increased its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 103.8% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,843,964 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $73,334,000 after acquiring an additional 939,240 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in FirstEnergy during the fourth quarter worth $30,069,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,843,901 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $2,619,270,000 after acquiring an additional 508,570 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC bought a new position in shares of FirstEnergy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $12,198,000. Institutional investors own 89.41% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wolfe Research lowered shares of FirstEnergy from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. UBS Group boosted their target price on FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $48.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Guggenheim raised their target price on FirstEnergy from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $45.15.

Remove Ads

FirstEnergy Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of FirstEnergy stock traded up $0.01 on Thursday, hitting $39.39. The stock had a trading volume of 1,151,349 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,401,151. The company has a quick ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58. FirstEnergy Corp. has a one year low of $36.81 and a one year high of $44.97. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $39.86 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $40.85. The stock has a market cap of $22.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.47, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.41.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.67 earnings per share (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 the consensus estimate of $3.53 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 6.64%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 EPS for the current year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.445 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 7th. This is a boost from FirstEnergy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $1.78 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.52%. FirstEnergy's payout ratio is 104.71%.

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.