Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Raises Stock Holdings in FirstEnergy Corporation (NYSE:FE)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its position in FirstEnergy Corporation (NYSE:FE - Free Report) by 15.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 105,986 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 13,976 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC's holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $4,284,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Covestor Ltd raised its stake in FirstEnergy by 69.3% during the 4th quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 623 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 255 shares in the last quarter. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of FirstEnergy during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. acquired a new position in FirstEnergy during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in FirstEnergy in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc raised its stake in FirstEnergy by 179.8% in the 1st quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,192 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 766 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.41% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other FirstEnergy news, CAO Jason Lisowski sold 12,000 shares of FirstEnergy stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,680.51. The trade was a 98.50% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on FE shares. Mizuho set a $43.00 price target on FirstEnergy in a report on Monday, April 28th. Bank of America upgraded FirstEnergy from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and increased their target price for the company from $42.00 to $45.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Guggenheim upped their target price on FirstEnergy from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, FirstEnergy presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $45.92.

FirstEnergy Stock Up 1.0%

FE opened at $40.33 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $23.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.40. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $41.63 and its 200 day moving average price is $40.46. FirstEnergy Corporation has a 12 month low of $37.58 and a 12 month high of $44.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 0.42 and a quick ratio of 0.34.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $3.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.68 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.49% and a net margin of 7.78%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.55 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that FirstEnergy Corporation will post 2.66 earnings per share for the current year.

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.

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