Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. Buys 8,446 Shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FEFree Report) by 16.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 60,042 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,446 shares during the quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $2,388,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in FE. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in FirstEnergy by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 339,439 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,990,000 after acquiring an additional 11,274 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 5.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,896,140 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $72,570,000 after purchasing an additional 104,253 shares in the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. raised its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 28.2% in the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 9,879 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $378,000 after purchasing an additional 2,176 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its position in FirstEnergy by 16.4% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 37,582 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,418,000 after purchasing an additional 5,291 shares during the period. Finally, Seven Eight Capital LP acquired a new stake in FirstEnergy during the second quarter worth $252,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

FirstEnergy Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE FE opened at $39.92 on Friday. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 12-month low of $35.41 and a 12-month high of $44.97. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.72. 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 company has a market cap of $23.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.52.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FEGet Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 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 company had revenue of $3.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.96 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.88 earnings per share. FirstEnergy’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.425 per share. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.26%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 109.68%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Argus raised shares of FirstEnergy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, September 20th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Scotiabank upgraded FirstEnergy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. KeyCorp dropped their target price on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn lowered FirstEnergy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $46.27.

Get Our Latest Stock Report on FE

FirstEnergy Company Profile

(Free Report)

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.

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE)

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