FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) Shares Sold by Geneos Wealth Management Inc.

Geneos Wealth Management Inc. decreased its position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 31.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,679 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 762 shares during the quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $62,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of FE. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 7.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,214,574 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,128,322,000 after purchasing an additional 4,443,050 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 31.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 15,827,860 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $540,996,000 after purchasing an additional 3,756,228 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 122.5% during the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,989,571 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $79,702,000 after purchasing an additional 1,095,445 shares during the period. ClearBridge Investments Ltd raised its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 58.1% during the first quarter. ClearBridge Investments Ltd now owns 2,543,588 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $116,649,000 after purchasing an additional 934,346 shares during the period. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised its position in FirstEnergy by 24.5% during the second quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 3,784,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $147,153,000 after buying an additional 744,674 shares during the period. 89.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FE has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. KeyCorp upped their price target on FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on FirstEnergy in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $45.00 price target on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com lowered FirstEnergy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $40.38.

FirstEnergy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE FE opened at $36.83 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.10, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.48. The firm has a market cap of $21.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.35 and a beta of 0.48. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $37.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.92. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 52 week low of $32.18 and a 52 week high of $41.17.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 13.52% and a net margin of 8.56%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.50 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 7th will be issued a $0.425 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 6th. This represents a $1.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.62%. This is a positive change from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 90.61%.

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.