FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) Receives $43.00 Consensus PT from Analysts

FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE – Get Rating) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the nine brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have given a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $43.00.

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Bank of America upped their price objective on FirstEnergy from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 14th. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 28th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of FirstEnergy in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Guggenheim upgraded shares of FirstEnergy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $34.00 to $46.00 in a research note on Monday, January 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 20th.

FirstEnergy Trading Up 0.3 %

FE stock opened at $37.89 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $39.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $40.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a quick ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06. FirstEnergy has a twelve month low of $35.32 and a twelve month high of $43.69.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.04 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 12.60% and a net margin of 3.23%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that FirstEnergy will post 2.5 earnings per share for the current year.

FirstEnergy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 5th will be given a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 4th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.12%. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 219.72%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On FirstEnergy

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Boston Partners purchased a new stake in FirstEnergy in the third quarter valued at $325,878,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in FirstEnergy by 41.9% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 19,698,278 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $826,146,000 after acquiring an additional 5,820,540 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in FirstEnergy by 7.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,214,574 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,128,322,000 after acquiring an additional 4,443,050 shares in the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. lifted its holdings in FirstEnergy by 102.9% in the third quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 3,806,527 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $140,841,000 after acquiring an additional 1,930,832 shares during the period. Finally, Zimmer Partners LP boosted its position in FirstEnergy by 113.3% in the 1st quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 2,735,311 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $109,577,000 after purchasing an additional 1,452,663 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.80% of the company’s stock.

About FirstEnergy

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FirstEnergy Corp. engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity as well as energy management and other energy-related services through its subsidiaries. It operates through the following business segments: Regulated Distribution, Regulated Transmission, and Corporate or Other.