State of Michigan Retirement System Reduces Stock Position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

State of Michigan Retirement System cut its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 0.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 139,244 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 300 shares during the quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $5,539,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in FirstEnergy by 30.1% during the 4th quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC now owns 17,847 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $710,000 after purchasing an additional 4,130 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of FirstEnergy in the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 123.6% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 14,821 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $590,000 after acquiring an additional 8,192 shares in the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 555.8% in the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 8,663 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $345,000 after acquiring an additional 7,342 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC grew its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC now owns 47,441 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,887,000 after acquiring an additional 644 shares in the last quarter. 89.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

FirstEnergy Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of FE stock opened at $38.23 on Friday. 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 Corp. has a 1 year low of $36.81 and a 1 year high of $44.97. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $40.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $41.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.03 billion, a PE ratio of 24.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.52.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by ($0.03). FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 6.64%. The business had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.53 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 EPS for the current year.

FirstEnergy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th were given a dividend of $0.425 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $1.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.45%. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 100.00%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on FE shares. Scotiabank decreased their target price on FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Guggenheim decreased their target price on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Wolfe Research lowered FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.33.

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.