FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) Given Overweight Rating at Morgan Stanley

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "overweight" rating restated by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley in a report issued on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $48.00 price target on the utilities provider's stock, up from their previous price target of $47.00. Morgan Stanley's price objective indicates a potential upside of 14.36% from the company's current price.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Guggenheim increased their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Scotiabank reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of FirstEnergy in a research note on Friday, April 25th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Mizuho set a $43.00 target price on shares of FirstEnergy in a report on Monday, April 28th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $46.00.

FirstEnergy Stock Performance

FirstEnergy stock opened at $41.97 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $41.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $40.63. FirstEnergy has a 1-year low of $37.58 and a 1-year 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. The stock has a market cap of $24.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.42.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE - Get Free Report) last posted 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 net margin of 6.64% and a return on equity of 11.38%. The business had revenue of $3.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.68 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.55 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that FirstEnergy will post 2.66 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at FirstEnergy

In other FirstEnergy news, CFO Jon Taylor K. sold 12,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.03, for a total value of $516,360.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 99,919 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,299,514.57. This trade represents a 10.72% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On FirstEnergy

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FE. Boston Partners lifted its position 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 purchasing an additional 6,991,866 shares during the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP lifted its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 60.2% during the 4th quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 8,340,760 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $331,795,000 after purchasing an additional 3,133,083 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 133,614.8% during the 1st quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,310,592 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $93,394,000 after purchasing an additional 2,308,864 shares during the last quarter. Wealthquest Corp purchased a new stake in shares of FirstEnergy during the 1st quarter worth $53,169,000. Finally, Zimmer Partners LP lifted its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 33.4% during the 4th quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 4,918,857 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $195,672,000 after purchasing an additional 1,232,040 shares during the last quarter. 89.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.