Employees Retirement System of Texas Reduces Holdings in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Employees Retirement System of Texas decreased its stake in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 14.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 82,410 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 13,390 shares during the period. Employees Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $32,783,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of FE. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 278,226 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $11,350,000 after purchasing an additional 2,544 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in FirstEnergy by 15.2% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 381,181 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $15,163,000 after buying an additional 50,363 shares during the last quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in FirstEnergy by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. now owns 6,582 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $262,000 after acquiring an additional 650 shares in the last quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of FirstEnergy in the fourth quarter worth $6,668,000. Finally, Prudential PLC increased its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 13.0% during the fourth quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 32,957 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,311,000 after acquiring an additional 3,795 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on FE shares. Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.00.

FirstEnergy Trading Down 4.1 %

NYSE:FE opened at $39.38 on Monday. FirstEnergy Corp. has a one year low of $36.81 and a one year high of $44.97. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $39.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $40.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.41. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.70 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.53 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 6.64%. Sell-side analysts forecast that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 EPS for the current year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 7th will be given a dividend of $0.445 per share. This represents a $1.78 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.52%. This is an increase from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 7th. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 104.71%.

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.