Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. Acquires 8,446 Shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 16.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 60,042 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,446 shares during the quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $2,388,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in FE. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV increased its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV now owns 244,360 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,721,000 after acquiring an additional 4,349 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in FirstEnergy by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 752,015 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,915,000 after acquiring an additional 8,712 shares in the last quarter. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new position in FirstEnergy in the fourth quarter valued at about $963,000. Marcum Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 8,347 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $332,000 after acquiring an additional 350 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AdvisorNet Financial Inc raised its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 6,689.2% during the fourth quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 10,727 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $427,000 after purchasing an additional 10,569 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on FE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on FirstEnergy from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Argus upgraded shares of FirstEnergy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, September 20th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of FirstEnergy in a research note on Monday, October 14th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $46.00 target price for the company. Finally, Scotiabank raised FirstEnergy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.27.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FE opened at $39.92 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 0.56 and a quick ratio of 0.46. The business has a 50-day moving average of $40.57 and a 200-day moving average of $41.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.76, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.52. FirstEnergy Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $35.41 and a fifty-two week high of $44.97.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by ($0.05). FirstEnergy had a net margin of 6.64% and a return on equity of 11.38%. The company had revenue of $3.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.96 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.88 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be given a dividend of $0.425 per share. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 109.68%.

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.