IHT Wealth Management LLC Lowers Position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

IHT Wealth Management LLC reduced its stake in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 34.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,876 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 3,655 shares during the quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $274,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Covestor Ltd boosted its position in FirstEnergy by 69.3% in the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 623 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 255 shares during the last quarter. Kestra Investment Management LLC bought a new position in FirstEnergy during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. purchased a new stake in FirstEnergy during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. WASHINGTON TRUST Co increased its holdings in FirstEnergy by 293.0% during the fourth quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co now owns 786 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 586 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bernard Wealth Management Corp. purchased a new position in FirstEnergy in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. 89.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Wolfe Research downgraded FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Bank of America upgraded shares of FirstEnergy from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $45.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of FirstEnergy in a report on Wednesday. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $45.75.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:FE opened at $42.36 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.33, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 0.56 and a quick ratio of 0.46. FirstEnergy Corp. has a one year low of $37.58 and a one year high of $44.97. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $40.20 and its 200-day moving average price is $40.67.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $3.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.68 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 6.64%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 7th. This is a positive change from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio is 94.68%.

About FirstEnergy

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.