FirstEnergy Corporation $FE Shares Newly Acquired by Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of FirstEnergy Corporation (NYSE:FE) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 132,650 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,748,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FE. Energy Income Partners LLC purchased a new stake in FirstEnergy in the 2nd quarter valued at about $97,602,000. Electron Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in FirstEnergy by 103.2% in the 1st quarter. Electron Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,991,914 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $151,570,000 after acquiring an additional 1,519,737 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new position in FirstEnergy in the 2nd quarter worth about $62,161,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 157.2% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,273,916 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $55,199,000 after acquiring an additional 778,617 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 7.5% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 9,971,706 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $508,158,000 after acquiring an additional 694,449 shares during the period. 89.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

Shares of FE stock opened at $47.13 on Friday. FirstEnergy Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $42.67 and a fifty-two week high of $52.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a current ratio of 0.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.28, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.39. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $45.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $47.52.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.08. FirstEnergy had a net margin of 7.40% and a return on equity of 11.07%. The firm had revenue of $4.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.24 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.83 EPS. FirstEnergy’s revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that FirstEnergy Corporation will post 2.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.4650 per share. This represents a $1.86 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 6th. FirstEnergy’s payout ratio is presently 89.42%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FE has been the topic of several research reports. Weiss Ratings upgraded FirstEnergy from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Monday. Wall Street Zen upgraded FirstEnergy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 19th. Mizuho set a $47.00 price objective on FirstEnergy in a report on Monday, October 12th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of FirstEnergy in a research note on Thursday, October 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $50.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 19th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $50.77.

About FirstEnergy

FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) is an electric utility company focused on the transmission and distribution of electricity. Through its regulated utility subsidiaries, the company delivers power to residential, commercial and industrial customers and maintains the poles, lines, substations and other infrastructure that support electric service.

FirstEnergy’s distribution operations serve customers across parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia and Maryland. Its utility companies include Ohio Edison, The Illuminating Company, Toledo Edison, Jersey Central Power & Light, Met-Ed, Penelec, Penn Power, West Penn Power, Mon Power and The Potomac Edison Company.