Legal & General Group Plc Cuts Stock Position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Legal & General Group Plc lessened its holdings in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 17.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,255,336 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 923,715 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.74% of FirstEnergy worth $169,277,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,843,901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,619,270,000 after acquiring an additional 508,570 shares during the period. Boston Partners raised its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 73.5% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 16,503,080 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $656,309,000 after acquiring an additional 6,991,866 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,527,440 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $497,009,000 after acquiring an additional 329,049 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in FirstEnergy by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 9,318,905 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $371,911,000 after buying an additional 220,433 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in FirstEnergy by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,546,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $153,081,000 after buying an additional 34,151 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on FE shares. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded shares of FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.15.

FirstEnergy Trading Up 3.0 %

NYSE FE opened at $39.47 on Thursday. FirstEnergy Corp. has a one year low of $36.81 and a one year high of $44.97. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $39.86 and a 200-day simple moving average of $40.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.76 billion, a PE ratio of 25.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.41.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.70 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.53 billion. FirstEnergy had a net margin of 6.64% and a return on equity of 11.38%. On average, equities analysts forecast that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 earnings per share for the current year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The business 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. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.51%. This is an increase from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 7th. FirstEnergy’s payout ratio is 104.71%.

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.