FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) Receives $43.50 Average PT from Analysts

FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nine research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $43.50.

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Bank of America raised their price objective on FirstEnergy from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on FirstEnergy from $45.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on FirstEnergy from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Barclays raised their price objective on FirstEnergy from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price target on FirstEnergy from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th.

FirstEnergy Stock Down 0.2 %

FE stock opened at $44.07 on Friday. FirstEnergy has a fifty-two week low of $32.18 and a fifty-two week high of $44.97. The business’s 50-day moving average is $41.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $39.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.51. The company has a market cap of $25.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.50.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 12.12% and a net margin of 6.61%. The company had revenue of $3.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.47 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.47 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that FirstEnergy will post 2.7 earnings per share for the current year.

FirstEnergy Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 7th were paid a $0.425 dividend. This represents a $1.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 7th. FirstEnergy’s payout ratio is 97.70%.

Institutional Trading of FirstEnergy

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC now owns 37,050 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,358,000 after purchasing an additional 376 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 41.4% during the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 187,964 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,259,000 after purchasing an additional 54,990 shares during the last quarter. Lumbard & Kellner LLC bought a new position in shares of FirstEnergy during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,418,000. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC increased its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 5.3% during the 1st quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 1,335,364 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $51,572,000 after purchasing an additional 67,469 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Pacific Advisors LP grew its position in FirstEnergy by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. First Pacific Advisors LP now owns 3,481,258 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $127,623,000 after acquiring an additional 45,350 shares during the last quarter. 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.