FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) Shares Sold by National Pension Service

National Pension Service cut its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 7.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 787,979 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 66,718 shares during the period. National Pension Service owned about 0.14% of FirstEnergy worth $31,346,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of FE. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 3.7% during the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 31,263 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,387,000 after acquiring an additional 1,107 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its stake in FirstEnergy by 14.4% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 10,511 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $466,000 after purchasing an additional 1,324 shares in the last quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC acquired a new position in FirstEnergy in the third quarter worth about $229,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in FirstEnergy by 25.4% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 4,131 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $183,000 after purchasing an additional 836 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC grew its stake in FirstEnergy by 55.2% in the third quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 11,479 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $508,000 after purchasing an additional 4,081 shares in the last quarter. 89.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on FE. Scotiabank decreased their price target on FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. KeyCorp decreased their price target on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Guggenheim decreased their price target on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.33.

FirstEnergy Stock Performance

FE opened at $38.79 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $40.07 and its 200-day moving average is $41.74. The stock has a market cap of $22.36 billion, a PE ratio of 25.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a current ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58. FirstEnergy Corp. has a twelve month low of $36.01 and a twelve month high of $44.97.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $3.20 billion for 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, analysts predict that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 earnings per share for the current year.

FirstEnergy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th were issued a dividend of $0.425 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $1.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.38%. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 109.68%.

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.