Financial Counselors Inc. Decreases Stock Position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Financial Counselors Inc. lessened its position in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 0.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 55,686 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 396 shares during the quarter. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $2,215,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in FE. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in FirstEnergy by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,843,901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,619,270,000 after purchasing an additional 508,570 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 73.5% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 16,503,080 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $656,309,000 after purchasing an additional 6,991,866 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 9,318,905 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $371,911,000 after buying an additional 220,433 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in FirstEnergy by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,546,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $153,081,000 after buying an additional 34,151 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in FirstEnergy by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,402,070 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $135,334,000 after buying an additional 105,408 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FE has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wolfe Research downgraded FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Guggenheim cut their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, FirstEnergy currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $45.00.

FirstEnergy Stock Performance

NYSE FE opened at $39.41 on Friday. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 52-week low of $36.81 and a 52-week high of $44.97. The company has a fifty day moving average of $39.89 and a 200-day moving average of $41.18. The company has a market capitalization of $22.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.56.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.70 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.53 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 6.64%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 7th will be given a dividend of $0.445 per share. This is a boost from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.52%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 7th. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 104.71%.

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.