FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) Shares Bought by Swiss National Bank

Swiss National Bank grew its stake in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 0.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,622,544 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,500 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $71,960,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Blair William & Co. IL increased its stake in FirstEnergy by 6.8% during the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 10,004 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $386,000 after buying an additional 636 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in FirstEnergy by 71.9% in the first quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 22,399 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $865,000 after purchasing an additional 9,372 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its stake in FirstEnergy by 3.6% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 9,139 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $353,000 after purchasing an additional 315 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Inc. CA increased its holdings in FirstEnergy by 89.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Inc. CA now owns 223,152 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,618,000 after purchasing an additional 105,289 shares during the period. Finally, 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 in the last quarter. 89.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on FirstEnergy from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Argus upgraded shares of FirstEnergy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Bank of America lifted their price target on FirstEnergy from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price objective on FirstEnergy from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $46.00.

FirstEnergy Stock Performance

Shares of FE opened at $41.58 on Wednesday. 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 firm has a market cap of $23.96 billion, a PE ratio of 26.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.51. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 12-month low of $35.41 and a 12-month high of $44.97. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $43.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.39.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by ($0.05). FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 6.64%. The company had revenue of $3.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.96 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.88 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.69 EPS for the current year.

FirstEnergy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, November 7th will be given a $0.425 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 7th. This represents a $1.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.09%. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 109.68%.

FirstEnergy 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.