FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) Shares Acquired by Sei Investments Co.

Sei Investments Co. increased its position in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 14.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 917,624 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 112,624 shares during the quarter. Sei Investments Co.’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $36,504,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of FE. Boston Partners boosted its stake 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 worth $656,309,000 after acquiring an additional 6,991,866 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 103.8% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,843,964 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $73,334,000 after purchasing an additional 939,240 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of FirstEnergy in the 4th quarter valued at $30,069,000. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC purchased a new position in FirstEnergy in the 4th quarter worth about $12,198,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in FirstEnergy by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 9,318,905 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $371,911,000 after buying an additional 220,433 shares during the period. 89.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on FE shares. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price 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. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Scotiabank decreased their target price on FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $45.00.

FirstEnergy Stock Down 1.3 %

FE opened at $39.03 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $22.51 billion, a PE ratio of 25.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.48. The business has a 50-day moving average of $39.94 and a 200-day moving average of $41.26. FirstEnergy Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $36.81 and a fifty-two week high of $44.97. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data 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). The business had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.53 billion. FirstEnergy had a net margin of 6.64% and a return on equity of 11.38%. Equities research analysts forecast that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 7th will be paid a $0.445 dividend. This represents a $1.78 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 7th. This is a positive change from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. FirstEnergy’s payout ratio is presently 104.71%.

About FirstEnergy

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.