Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. Increases Position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. boosted its stake in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 57.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 45,286 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 16,547 shares during the period. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C.’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $1,801,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Boston Partners increased its stake in FirstEnergy by 73.5% during the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Amundi raised its position in FirstEnergy by 103.8% in the fourth 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 stake in shares of FirstEnergy in the fourth quarter valued at $30,069,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 0.8% in the 4th 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 during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in FirstEnergy by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,527,440 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $497,009,000 after acquiring an additional 329,049 shares in the last quarter. 89.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered 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. One 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, FirstEnergy presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $45.00.

FirstEnergy Stock Performance

Shares of FE stock opened at $39.38 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.71 billion, a PE ratio of 25.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $39.97 and its 200 day moving average price is $41.02. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 52-week low of $36.81 and a 52-week high of $44.97.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.53 billion. FirstEnergy had a net margin of 6.64% and a return on equity of 11.38%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 EPS for the current year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. 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 4.52%. 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.