Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. Acquires 1,252 Shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 178.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,952 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,252 shares during the period. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc.’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $78,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Balanced Wealth Group LLC lifted its holdings in FirstEnergy by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Balanced Wealth Group LLC now owns 26,991 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,074,000 after buying an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP raised its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 59.1% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 861 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 320 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group lifted its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 5,146 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $205,000 after acquiring an additional 324 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in FirstEnergy by 33.0% in the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,326 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $53,000 after acquiring an additional 329 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Horizon Investments LLC increased its position in FirstEnergy by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 7,290 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $287,000 after purchasing an additional 336 shares during the period. 89.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FE has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wolfe Research lowered shares of FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.00.

FirstEnergy Stock Performance

Shares of FE stock opened at $40.43 on Tuesday. 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 52 week low of $36.81 and a 52 week high of $44.97. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $39.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $41.09. The company has a market capitalization of $23.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.48.

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

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.445 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 7th. This is an increase from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.40%. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 104.71%.

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.