Broadleaf Partners LLC Buys Shares of 12,650 FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Broadleaf Partners LLC bought a new stake in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 12,650 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $503,000.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Boston Partners lifted its position in FirstEnergy by 73.5% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 16,503,080 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $656,309,000 after purchasing an additional 6,991,866 shares during the period. Amundi increased its position in FirstEnergy by 103.8% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,843,964 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $73,334,000 after purchasing an additional 939,240 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 118.2% during the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,640,808 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $65,271,000 after buying an additional 888,800 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of FirstEnergy in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,069,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 0.8% in 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 buying an additional 508,570 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have issued reports on FE shares. UBS Group increased their price objective on FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Guggenheim boosted their price target on FirstEnergy from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.17.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

FE stock opened at $41.87 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $39.96 and its 200 day moving average price is $40.75. The firm has a market cap of $24.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.01, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.56. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 1 year low of $37.23 and a 1 year high of $44.97.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $3.53 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.445 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 7th. This is an increase from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.25%. FirstEnergy’s payout ratio is 104.71%.

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.