Blueshift Asset Management LLC Acquires Shares of 11,272 FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Blueshift Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 11,272 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $448,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Balanced Wealth Group LLC grew its stake in FirstEnergy by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Balanced Wealth Group LLC now owns 26,991 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,074,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP grew its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 59.1% in the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 861 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 320 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group grew its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 5,146 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $205,000 after acquiring an additional 324 shares in the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 33.0% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,326 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 329 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Horizon Investments LLC grew its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 7,290 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $287,000 after acquiring an additional 336 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FE has been the subject of several research reports. Wolfe Research lowered FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. KeyCorp decreased their target price on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Guggenheim decreased their target price on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Scotiabank decreased their target price on FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $45.17.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

FE opened at $39.80 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $22.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.68, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.48. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 1 year low of $36.81 and a 1 year high of $44.97. The company has a current ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $39.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.37.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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). FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 6.64%. The company had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.53 billion. Analysts forecast that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The company 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 dividend of $0.445 per share. This represents a $1.78 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.47%. This is a positive change from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 7th. FirstEnergy’s payout ratio is currently 100.00%.

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.