First Trust Advisors LP Acquires 45,538 Shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

First Trust Advisors LP grew its position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE - Free Report) by 4.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,078,399 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 45,538 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned 0.19% of FirstEnergy worth $42,899,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of FE. Balanced Wealth Group LLC boosted its stake in FirstEnergy by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Balanced Wealth Group LLC now owns 26,991 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,074,000 after buying an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 69.3% during the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 623 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 255 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group boosted its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 5,146 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $205,000 after purchasing an additional 324 shares in the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 33.0% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,326 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 329 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Horizon Investments LLC increased its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 7,290 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $287,000 after purchasing an additional 336 shares in the last quarter. 89.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have weighed in on the stock. Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Mizuho set a $43.00 price target on FirstEnergy in a research report on Monday. Wolfe Research downgraded FirstEnergy from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an "overweight" rating on shares of FirstEnergy in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $46.00.

FirstEnergy Stock Performance

FirstEnergy stock traded up $0.09 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $42.81. 365,473 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,546,456. The stock has a market cap of $24.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.41. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.24 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $40.67. FirstEnergy Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $37.58 and a fifty-two week high of $44.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 0.56 and a quick ratio of 0.46.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $3.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.68 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.55 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 7th will be issued a $0.445 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 7th. This is a boost from FirstEnergy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $1.78 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.16%. FirstEnergy's payout ratio is currently 94.68%.

FirstEnergy Company 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.