FirstEnergy Corp. (FE) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.43 on March 1st

FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, December 18th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th will be given a dividend of 0.425 per share by the utilities provider on Saturday, March 1st. This represents a $1.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.34%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th.

FirstEnergy has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.4% annually over the last three years. FirstEnergy has a dividend payout ratio of 59.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect FirstEnergy to earn $2.90 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.70 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 58.6%.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

FirstEnergy stock opened at $39.16 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.26, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.51. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $41.89 and a 200-day moving average of $41.60. FirstEnergy has a 52-week low of $35.41 and a 52-week high of $44.97.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.90 by ($0.05). FirstEnergy had a net margin of 6.64% and a return on equity of 11.38%. The firm had revenue of $3.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.96 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.88 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that FirstEnergy will post 2.68 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on FE. Argus upgraded FirstEnergy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 20th. KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays raised their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $40.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on FirstEnergy from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.27.

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.