Advisors Capital Management LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Advisors Capital Management LLC cut its holdings in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 7.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,755 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 430 shares during the quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $229,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of FE. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in FirstEnergy by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,843,901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,619,270,000 after purchasing an additional 508,570 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 73.5% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 16,503,080 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $656,309,000 after buying an additional 6,991,866 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,527,440 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $497,009,000 after acquiring an additional 329,049 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position in FirstEnergy by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 9,318,905 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $371,911,000 after acquiring an additional 220,433 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in FirstEnergy by 1.0% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,546,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $153,081,000 after acquiring an additional 34,151 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded shares of FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $45.17.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

FirstEnergy stock opened at $41.03 on Wednesday. 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 stock has a market cap of $23.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.41. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $39.90 and a two-hundred day moving average of $40.77. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 1 year low of $36.81 and a 1 year high of $44.97.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last posted 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). FirstEnergy had a net margin of 6.64% and a return on equity of 11.38%. The company had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.53 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 earnings per share for the current year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 7th will be issued a $0.445 dividend. This represents a $1.78 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.34%. This is a boost from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 7th. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.