Smith Group Asset Management LLC Purchases New Position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Smith Group Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 8,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $318,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in FirstEnergy by 37.4% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 48,493 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,856,000 after buying an additional 13,195 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 1.0% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 36,488 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,396,000 after acquiring an additional 372 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in FirstEnergy by 40.0% in the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 61,278 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,345,000 after purchasing an additional 17,497 shares during the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its stake in FirstEnergy by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 29,029 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,111,000 after purchasing an additional 454 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new stake in FirstEnergy during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FE has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. 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 research report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Scotiabank raised shares of FirstEnergy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered FirstEnergy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on FirstEnergy in a report on Monday, October 14th. They set a “hold” rating and a $46.00 target price on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.27.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

Shares of FE opened at $39.72 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 0.56 and a quick ratio of 0.46. The company has a market cap of $22.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.62, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 0.52. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 12 month low of $35.41 and a 12 month high of $44.97. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $40.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.83.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $3.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.96 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 6.64%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.88 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.67 earnings per share for the current year.

FirstEnergy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.425 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. This represents a $1.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.28%. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 109.68%.

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.