Summit Global Investments Invests $731,000 in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Summit Global Investments bought a new stake in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 18,083 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $731,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Boston Partners raised its stake 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 worth $656,309,000 after purchasing an additional 6,991,866 shares during the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP grew its holdings in FirstEnergy by 60.2% during the fourth 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 during the period. Zimmer Partners LP boosted its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 33.4% in the fourth quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 4,918,857 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $195,672,000 after acquiring an additional 1,232,040 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 103.8% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,843,964 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $73,334,000 after acquiring an additional 939,240 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 118.2% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,640,808 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $65,271,000 after acquiring an additional 888,800 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.41% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on FE. Scotiabank reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of FirstEnergy in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Bank of America upgraded FirstEnergy from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $42.00 to $45.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Mizuho set a $43.00 price objective on FirstEnergy in a report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $48.00 price target (up from $47.00) on shares of FirstEnergy in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $46.00.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

Shares of FirstEnergy stock traded down $0.20 on Thursday, hitting $40.67. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,413,079 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,722,894. 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 Corp. has a 1 year low of $37.58 and a 1 year high of $44.97. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $41.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $40.63. The company has a market capitalization of $23.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.42.

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 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 6.64%. The firm had revenue of $3.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.68 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.55 EPS. FirstEnergy's revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 7th were paid a dividend of $0.445 per share. This is a positive change from FirstEnergy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $1.78 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 7th. FirstEnergy's payout ratio is 94.68%.

Insider Transactions at FirstEnergy

In related news, CAO Jason Lisowski sold 12,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.97, for a total value 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. This represents a 98.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.17% of the company's stock.

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.