FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) Position Reduced by National Pension Service

National Pension Service decreased its position in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 7.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 787,979 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 66,718 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $31,346,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FE. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in FirstEnergy by 3.7% during the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 31,263 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,387,000 after purchasing an additional 1,107 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its position 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 buying an additional 1,324 shares during the last quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC acquired a new position in FirstEnergy in the third quarter worth approximately $229,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its position 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 buying an additional 836 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC grew its position 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 buying an additional 4,081 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

FirstEnergy Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:FE opened at $38.79 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $40.07 and a two-hundred day moving average of $41.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.52. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 12-month low of $36.01 and a 12-month high of $44.97. The company has a quick ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last issued its 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). The company had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.53 billion. FirstEnergy had a net margin of 6.64% and a return on equity of 11.38%. On average, equities analysts expect that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FE has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. KeyCorp decreased their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Guggenheim decreased their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Wolfe Research lowered shares of FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, FirstEnergy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $45.33.

FirstEnergy 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.