Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd Decreases Stock Holdings in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd reduced its stake in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 57.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 16,075 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 21,832 shares during the quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $639,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC purchased a new stake in shares of FirstEnergy during the 4th quarter worth $12,198,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 7.9% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,346,263 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $104,057,000 after purchasing an additional 171,955 shares during the last quarter. DRW Securities LLC acquired a new position in FirstEnergy during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,154,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in FirstEnergy by 41.8% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 47,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,902,000 after buying an additional 14,129 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Whalen Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in FirstEnergy during the 4th quarter valued at about $664,000. 89.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

FirstEnergy Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of FE stock opened at $38.79 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $40.07 and a 200 day moving average of $41.75. 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 market cap of $22.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.52. FirstEnergy Corp. has a twelve month low of $36.01 and a twelve month high of $44.97.

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

FirstEnergy Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th will be given a dividend of $0.425 per share. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 109.68%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on FE. KeyCorp reduced their target price on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Guggenheim reduced their target price on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Finally, Wolfe Research lowered FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.33.

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.