Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. Acquires Shares of 7,110 FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. bought a new position in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 7,110 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $261,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in FirstEnergy in the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in FirstEnergy by 327.3% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,034 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 792 shares during the last quarter. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in FirstEnergy during the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in FirstEnergy in the third quarter worth $45,000. Finally, Authentikos Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of FirstEnergy in the third quarter valued at $45,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on FE. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on FirstEnergy in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $45.00 price target for the company. Scotiabank lowered their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. StockNews.com raised shares of FirstEnergy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.80.

FirstEnergy Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of FE opened at $39.47 on Thursday. FirstEnergy Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $32.18 and a fifty-two week high of $40.42. The firm has a market cap of $22.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.68 and a beta of 0.48. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $38.07 and a 200-day moving average price of $37.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a current ratio of 0.65.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.10 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 12.45% and a net margin of 8.22%. FirstEnergy’s quarterly revenue was up .0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.50 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.68 earnings per share for the current year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.425 per share. This is a positive change from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. This represents a $1.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.31%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 6th. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 97.70%.

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.