Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Buys Shares of 31,200 FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 31,200 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,144,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. DnB Asset Management AS raised its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 43.0% during the third quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 32,489 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,110,000 after purchasing an additional 9,768 shares during the last quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 1.3% during the third quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC now owns 66,353 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,268,000 after purchasing an additional 873 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank raised its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 40.0% during the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 90,190 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,083,000 after purchasing an additional 25,769 shares during the last quarter. Spirit of America Management Corp NY raised its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 35.2% during the third quarter. Spirit of America Management Corp NY now owns 12,300 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $420,000 after purchasing an additional 3,200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, My Legacy Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 10.0% during the third quarter. My Legacy Advisors LLC now owns 17,674 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $630,000 after purchasing an additional 1,603 shares during the last quarter. 89.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

FirstEnergy Stock Performance

FE opened at $38.12 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.94 billion, a PE ratio of 21.06 and a beta of 0.48. FirstEnergy Corp. has a twelve month low of $32.18 and a twelve month high of $41.17. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $37.76 and its 200 day moving average price is $37.07. The company has a current ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.10.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. FirstEnergy had a net margin of 8.56% and a return on equity of 13.52%. FirstEnergy’s quarterly revenue was up .0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.50 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 7th will be issued a $0.425 dividend. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.46%. This is a positive change from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 6th. FirstEnergy’s payout ratio is presently 93.92%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FE has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 4th. StockNews.com cut shares of FirstEnergy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of FirstEnergy in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $45.00 target price for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.80.

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.