Lord Abbett & CO. LLC Sells 45,793 Shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC decreased its position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,534,951 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 45,793 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC owned about 0.27% of FirstEnergy worth $68,075,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of FE. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 6.4% in the second quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 78,297 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,996,000 after purchasing an additional 4,730 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in FirstEnergy by 162.1% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 48,990 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,875,000 after acquiring an additional 30,298 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 246.6% during the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,026 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 730 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management boosted its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 5.0% in the second quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 7,222 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $285,000 after acquiring an additional 341 shares during the period. Finally, Gradient Investments LLC grew its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 924.2% in the second quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 1,946 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 1,756 shares in the last quarter. 89.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on FirstEnergy from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Scotiabank raised shares of FirstEnergy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $45.00 to $50.00 in a report on Thursday. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $40.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of FirstEnergy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, September 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $46.27.

FirstEnergy Stock Performance

NYSE FE opened at $40.27 on Friday. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 52-week low of $35.41 and a 52-week high of $44.97. The company has a fifty day moving average of $42.13 and a 200-day moving average of $41.61. The company has a market capitalization of $23.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.56.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.90 by ($0.05). FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 6.64%. The firm had revenue of $3.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.96 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.88 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 7th were paid a $0.425 dividend. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 7th. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 109.68%.

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.