FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) Shares Purchased by Stablepoint Partners LLC

Stablepoint Partners LLC lifted its stake in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 1.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 119,661 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,901 shares during the quarter. Stablepoint Partners LLC’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $4,760,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 9,098,472 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $403,517,000 after purchasing an additional 457,231 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in FirstEnergy by 1.0% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,546,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $153,081,000 after purchasing an additional 34,151 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in FirstEnergy by 7.9% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,346,263 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $104,057,000 after buying an additional 171,955 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank grew its position in FirstEnergy by 0.3% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,622,544 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $71,960,000 after buying an additional 5,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 1.2% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,236,235 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $47,311,000 after buying an additional 14,796 shares in the last quarter. 89.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FE has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wolfe Research cut FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Scotiabank raised shares of FirstEnergy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $40.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of FirstEnergy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $46.27.

FirstEnergy Trading Up 0.4 %

FirstEnergy stock opened at $39.18 on Friday. 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 12 month low of $35.41 and a 12 month high of $44.97. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.77. The stock has a market cap of $22.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 0.52.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.90 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $3.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.96 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 6.64%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.88 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be paid a $0.425 dividend. This represents a $1.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 109.68%.

FirstEnergy 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.