FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) Plans $0.43 Quarterly Dividend

FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, September 24th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 7th will be paid a dividend of 0.425 per share by the utilities provider on Sunday, December 1st. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 7th.

FirstEnergy has raised its dividend by an average of 0.4% per year over the last three years. FirstEnergy has a dividend payout ratio of 58.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect FirstEnergy to earn $2.90 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.70 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 58.6%.

FirstEnergy Trading Up 0.8 %

FE stock opened at $41.89 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $43.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 0.56 and a quick ratio of 0.46. FirstEnergy has a fifty-two week low of $34.92 and a fifty-two week high of $44.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.51.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.90 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $3.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.96 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 6.64%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.88 EPS. Analysts expect that FirstEnergy will post 2.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FE has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays increased their target price on FirstEnergy from $40.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of FirstEnergy in a research note on Monday, October 14th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $46.00 target price for the company. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price target on FirstEnergy from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $46.00.

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.