FirstEnergy Corporation (NYSE:FE) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

FirstEnergy Corporation (NYSE:FE) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $49.0833.

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on FE shares. Barclays upgraded shares of FirstEnergy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $43.00 to $49.00 in a research note on Monday, August 25th. KeyCorp lowered shares of FirstEnergy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Scotiabank raised their price target on FirstEnergy from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Citigroup began coverage on FirstEnergy in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $53.00 price target for the company.

FirstEnergy Stock Performance

NYSE:FE opened at $46.28 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $26.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.53. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $45.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $43.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.51. FirstEnergy has a 1 year low of $37.58 and a 1 year high of $48.20.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The utilities provider reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.07. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.15% and a net margin of 9.19%.The company had revenue of $4.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.94 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.85 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. FirstEnergy has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.500-2.560 EPS. On average, analysts expect that FirstEnergy will post 2.66 earnings per share for the current year.

FirstEnergy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.445 per share. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 7th. FirstEnergy’s payout ratio is presently 77.73%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On FirstEnergy

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of FE. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its position in FirstEnergy by 1.6% during the second quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 84,565 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,355,000 after buying an additional 1,349 shares in the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc raised its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 84.7% in the 2nd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 52,238 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,103,000 after acquiring an additional 23,959 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC bought a new stake in shares of FirstEnergy during the 4th quarter valued at about $256,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 3.7% during the second quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 26,621 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,060,000 after purchasing an additional 956 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 49.4% in the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 48,537 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,954,000 after purchasing an additional 16,046 shares during the last quarter. 89.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.