Arvest Investments Inc. Acquires Shares of 23,327 FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Arvest Investments Inc. acquired a new position in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 23,327 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $943,000.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of FE. Boston Partners raised its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 73.5% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 16,503,080 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $656,309,000 after acquiring an additional 6,991,866 shares in the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP increased its stake in FirstEnergy by 60.2% during the 4th quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 8,340,760 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $331,795,000 after purchasing an additional 3,133,083 shares in the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP increased its stake in FirstEnergy by 33.4% during the 4th quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 4,918,857 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $195,672,000 after purchasing an additional 1,232,040 shares in the last quarter. Amundi increased its stake in FirstEnergy by 103.8% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,843,964 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $73,334,000 after purchasing an additional 939,240 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in FirstEnergy by 118.2% during the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,640,808 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $65,271,000 after purchasing an additional 888,800 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.41% of the company's stock.

FirstEnergy Stock Performance

NYSE FE traded down $0.36 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $40.31. 3,850,510 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,859,478. The business's 50 day moving average is $41.63 and its 200-day moving average is $40.56. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 1 year low of $37.58 and a 1 year high of $44.97. The company has a market capitalization of $23.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.40. 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 - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.07. FirstEnergy had a net margin of 6.64% and a return on equity of 11.38%. The firm had revenue of $3.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.68 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.55 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, June 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 7th were issued a dividend of $0.445 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 7th. This is an increase from FirstEnergy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.42%. FirstEnergy's dividend payout ratio is 94.68%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on FE. Bank of America upgraded shares of FirstEnergy from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and upped their price target for the company from $42.00 to $45.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $48.00 price objective (up from $47.00) on shares of FirstEnergy in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Scotiabank reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of FirstEnergy in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $46.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Jason Lisowski sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.97, for a total transaction of $503,640.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 183 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,680.51. This represents a 98.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.