California Public Employees Retirement System Sells 61,769 Shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

California Public Employees Retirement System lessened its stake in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 2,887,634 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 61,769 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $112,271,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 7.0% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,214,574 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,128,322,000 after purchasing an additional 4,443,050 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can purchased a new stake in shares of FirstEnergy during the 2nd quarter valued at $138,188,000. Zimmer Partners LP lifted its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 113.3% during the 1st quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 2,735,311 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $109,577,000 after purchasing an additional 1,452,663 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 13.2% during the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 11,744,900 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $470,512,000 after purchasing an additional 1,373,826 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 155.1% during the 2nd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,097,476 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $81,550,000 after purchasing an additional 1,275,405 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.34% of the company’s stock.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

NYSE:FE opened at $35.12 on Tuesday. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 52 week low of $32.18 and a 52 week high of $43.31. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.15 billion, a PE ratio of 43.90 and a beta of 0.47. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $35.50 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.22.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last posted its earnings results on Friday, October 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.03. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 12.93% and a net margin of 4.06%. The firm had revenue of $3.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.54 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.79 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, November 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 1st were paid a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.67%. This is a positive change from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 6th. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 205.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on FE. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on FirstEnergy from $44.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 25th. TheStreet lowered FirstEnergy from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Friday, August 4th. UBS Group lowered FirstEnergy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Monday, August 7th. Guggenheim reduced their target price on FirstEnergy from $44.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Monday, October 9th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on FirstEnergy from $37.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $40.00.

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.