FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the fifteen ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $46.00.

Several equities analysts recently commented on FE shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Guggenheim increased their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. UBS Group raised 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. Finally, Mizuho set a $43.00 price target on shares of FirstEnergy in a research note on Monday, April 28th.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:FE opened at $41.23 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $23.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.60, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.42. 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 50 day simple moving average of $40.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $40.61. FirstEnergy has a one year low of $37.58 and a one year high of $44.97.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $3.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.68 billion. FirstEnergy had a net margin of 6.64% and a return on equity of 11.38%. The firm’s revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.55 EPS. Research analysts predict that FirstEnergy will post 2.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 7th will be given a dividend of $0.445 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 7th. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.32%. This is a boost from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio is 94.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling at FirstEnergy

In other FirstEnergy news, CFO Jon Taylor K. sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.03, for a total transaction of $516,360.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 99,919 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,299,514.57. This represents a 10.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of FirstEnergy

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in FirstEnergy by 0.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,150,214 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,673,792,000 after purchasing an additional 306,313 shares during the period. Boston Partners grew its holdings in FirstEnergy by 14.9% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 18,962,859 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $767,952,000 after purchasing an additional 2,459,779 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in FirstEnergy by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,527,440 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $497,009,000 after purchasing an additional 329,049 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in FirstEnergy by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 9,318,905 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $371,911,000 after purchasing an additional 220,433 shares during the period. Finally, Soroban Capital Partners LP grew its holdings in FirstEnergy by 60.2% in the fourth quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 8,340,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $331,795,000 after purchasing an additional 3,133,083 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

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.