Focus Partners Wealth Acquires 272 Shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Focus Partners Wealth grew its holdings in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 19,838 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 272 shares during the quarter. Focus Partners Wealth’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $835,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc grew its position in FirstEnergy by 28.0% during the 4th quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 314,434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,508,000 after acquiring an additional 68,738 shares during the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in FirstEnergy by 24.8% during the 4th quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 12,263 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $488,000 after acquiring an additional 2,438 shares during the last quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC grew its position in FirstEnergy by 52.2% during the 4th quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC now owns 7,513 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $299,000 after acquiring an additional 2,576 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in FirstEnergy by 28.8% during the 4th quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 99,729 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,967,000 after acquiring an additional 22,284 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bearing Point Capital LLC bought a new stake in FirstEnergy during the 4th quarter worth $410,000. Institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

FirstEnergy Stock Performance

Shares of FirstEnergy stock opened at $42.67 on Monday. FirstEnergy Corp. has a one year low of $37.58 and a one year high of $44.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.53, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.42. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $40.88 and a 200 day simple moving average of $40.59. 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) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $3.68 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.55 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 7th will be given a $0.445 dividend. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.17%. This is a positive change from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 7th. FirstEnergy’s payout ratio is presently 94.68%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Mizuho set a $43.00 price objective on FirstEnergy in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Scotiabank reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of FirstEnergy in a report on Friday, April 25th. Wolfe Research downgraded FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Bank of America raised FirstEnergy from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $45.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $46.00.

Insider Activity at FirstEnergy

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

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.