Morgan Stanley Cuts FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) Price Target to $48.00

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) had its target price lowered by Morgan Stanley from $52.00 to $48.00 in a report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Guggenheim decreased their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Wolfe Research cut shares of FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $45.00.

FirstEnergy Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE FE opened at $39.62 on Thursday. FirstEnergy has a 12-month low of $36.81 and a 12-month high of $44.97. The company has a market cap of $22.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a current ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $39.95 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.32.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.70 by ($0.03). FirstEnergy had a net margin of 6.64% and a return on equity of 11.38%. The company had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.53 billion. Research analysts anticipate that FirstEnergy will post 2.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.49%. This is a boost from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 104.71%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On FirstEnergy

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,843,901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,619,270,000 after purchasing an additional 508,570 shares during the period. Boston Partners increased 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 valued at $656,309,000 after purchasing an additional 6,991,866 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,527,440 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $497,009,000 after purchasing an additional 329,049 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 9,318,905 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $371,911,000 after purchasing an additional 220,433 shares during the period. Finally, Soroban Capital Partners LP increased its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 60.2% in 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. Institutional investors own 89.41% 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.