Heartland Advisors Inc. Has $10.36 Million Stock Holdings in FirstEnergy Corporation $FE

Key Points

• Heartland Advisors reduced its FirstEnergy position by 17% in the second quarter, selling 44,711 shares and retaining 217,875 shares valued at approximately $10.36 million.
• Institutional ownership remains high at 89.41%, with major investors including Vanguard, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management and Assenagon Asset Management adjusting their holdings.
• Analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus with an average price target of $52.83. FirstEnergy reported quarterly EPS of $0.50, revenue of $3.68 billion, and declared a $0.465-per-share quarterly dividend yielding about 4% annually.

Heartland Advisors Inc. decreased its position in shares of FirstEnergy Corporation (NYSE:FE - Free Report) by 17.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 217,875 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 44,711 shares during the quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc.'s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $10,358,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of FE. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its holdings in FirstEnergy by 11,305.6% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,974,989 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $81,699,000 after acquiring an additional 1,957,673 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,109,341 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $3,049,255,000 after acquiring an additional 761,157 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 42.8% in the fourth quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 85,247 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $3,817,000 after acquiring an additional 25,571 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 6,066.6% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 495,299 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $23,547,000 after purchasing an additional 487,267 shares during the period. Finally, BW Gestao de Investimentos Ltda. acquired a new stake in shares of FirstEnergy during the fourth quarter worth about $15,172,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.41% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on FE shares. Wolfe Research lowered FirstEnergy from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of FirstEnergy from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $56.00 to $53.00 in a report on Friday, May 15th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of FirstEnergy from a "buy (b)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $53.00 to $52.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $52.83.

FirstEnergy Stock Performance

Shares of FE opened at $45.99 on Friday. FirstEnergy Corporation has a 12 month low of $42.87 and a 12 month high of $52.34. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $47.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $48.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.46, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.88.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.50. FirstEnergy had a net margin of 6.86% and a return on equity of 10.51%. The firm had revenue of $3.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.51 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.52 EPS. Research analysts forecast that FirstEnergy Corporation will post 2.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Investors of record on Friday, August 7th will be given a dividend of $0.465 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 7th. This represents a $1.86 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.0%. FirstEnergy's dividend payout ratio is 98.94%.

FirstEnergy Profile

FirstEnergy Corp. NYSE: FE is a U.S.-based electric utility holding company headquartered in Akron, Ohio. The company's primary business is the delivery of electricity through its regulated transmission and distribution utilities, serving residential, commercial and industrial customers across parts of the Midwest and Mid‑Atlantic. FirstEnergy's service territory includes states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and West Virginia, and it operates primarily within the PJM regional transmission organization.

FirstEnergy's core activities center on owning and operating electric distribution networks and transmission systems, maintaining and upgrading grid infrastructure, managing storm response and restoration, and offering customer programs that include energy efficiency and reliability services.

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