FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) Stock Rating Lowered by Seaport Res Ptn

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) was downgraded by equities researchers at Seaport Res Ptn from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Thursday, Zacks.com reports. Seaport Res Ptn also issued estimates for FirstEnergy’s FY2024 earnings at $2.67 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $2.90 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $3.11 EPS.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on FE. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $40.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.00.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

FirstEnergy stock opened at $41.82 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $43.65 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.05. The company has a market capitalization of $24.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.50. FirstEnergy has a 1 year low of $34.92 and a 1 year high of $44.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.56.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $3.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.96 billion. FirstEnergy had a net margin of 6.64% and a return on equity of 11.38%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.88 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that FirstEnergy will post 2.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Capital World Investors raised its position in FirstEnergy by 14.3% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 77,928,914 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,009,615,000 after purchasing an additional 9,773,785 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in FirstEnergy by 1,417.3% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 743,303 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $32,965,000 after purchasing an additional 694,313 shares during the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd raised its position in FirstEnergy by 63.4% in the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 1,328,210 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $51,295,000 after purchasing an additional 515,458 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in FirstEnergy by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 9,098,472 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $403,517,000 after purchasing an additional 457,231 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in FirstEnergy in the 2nd quarter valued at $14,933,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

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.