Vanguard Group Inc. Trims Holdings in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Vanguard Group Inc. trimmed its position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 0.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 64,891,959 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 407,935 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 11.30% of FirstEnergy worth $2,378,939,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of FE. Kestra Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 3.8% in the third quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 28,345 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $969,000 after purchasing an additional 1,049 shares during the last quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in FirstEnergy by 5.8% during the third quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 52,606 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,798,000 after buying an additional 2,907 shares during the last quarter. Korea Investment CORP boosted its stake in FirstEnergy by 2.6% during the third quarter. Korea Investment CORP now owns 191,676 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,551,000 after buying an additional 4,800 shares during the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in FirstEnergy in the third quarter valued at $944,000. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its position in FirstEnergy by 15.7% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 287,482 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,826,000 after purchasing an additional 39,043 shares during the period. 89.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on FE shares. StockNews.com upgraded FirstEnergy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on FirstEnergy in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $45.00 target price for the company. Mizuho boosted their target price on FirstEnergy from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, June 3rd. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on FirstEnergy from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $40.27.

FirstEnergy Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of FE opened at $38.24 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $22.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.50. FirstEnergy Corp. has a one year low of $32.18 and a one year high of $40.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a current ratio of 0.65. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $38.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.92.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.36 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 12.45% and a net margin of 8.22%. Sell-side analysts forecast that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 7th were paid a dividend of $0.425 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 6th. This is a positive change from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.45%. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 97.70%.

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.