FirstEnergy Corporation (FE) To Go Ex-Dividend on November 6th

FirstEnergy Corporation (NYSE:FE) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.4650 per share by the utilities provider on Tuesday, December 1st. This represents a $1.86 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 6th.

FirstEnergy has increased its dividend payment by an average of 0.0%per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 3 years. FirstEnergy has a payout ratio of 68.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect FirstEnergy to earn $2.95 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.86 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 63.1%.

FirstEnergy Trading Down 0.6%

FE stock opened at $43.38 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.88, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.45. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $46.55 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $47.52. FirstEnergy has a one year low of $42.67 and a one year high of $52.34. The stock has a market cap of $25.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.45.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.50. The firm had revenue of $3.68 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.51 billion. FirstEnergy had a net margin of 6.86% and a return on equity of 10.51%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.52 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that FirstEnergy will post 2.74 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $55.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of FirstEnergy in a report on Monday, September 14th. Wall Street Zen raised FirstEnergy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 19th. UBS Group increased their target price on FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $49.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 18th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, FirstEnergy presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.58.

FirstEnergy Company Profile

FirstEnergy Corp. is an electric utility holding company focused primarily on regulated electricity transmission and distribution. Through its operating companies, the company delivers electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers and maintains the infrastructure needed to support reliable service.

FirstEnergy’s utility subsidiaries include Ohio Edison, The Illuminating Company and Toledo Edison in Ohio; Met-Ed, Penelec, Penn Power and West Penn Power in Pennsylvania; Jersey Central Power & Light in New Jersey; and Mon Power and Potomac Edison in West Virginia and Maryland.