FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) Shares Acquired by Stifel Financial Corp

Stifel Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 181,825 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,113 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $8,064,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 694,313 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in FirstEnergy by 5.3% in the third 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. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in FirstEnergy during the second quarter worth about $14,933,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in FirstEnergy by 1,178.5% in the 2nd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 286,824 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $10,977,000 after buying an additional 264,389 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in FirstEnergy by 4,445.0% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 219,434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,732,000 after buying an additional 214,606 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FE has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Scotiabank upgraded shares of FirstEnergy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $45.00 to $50.00 in a report on Thursday. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered FirstEnergy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on FirstEnergy from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on FirstEnergy from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.27.

FirstEnergy Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE:FE opened at $40.32 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.56. FirstEnergy Corp. has a one year low of $35.41 and a one year high of $44.97. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.59. The stock has a market cap of $23.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.51.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 EPS 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.96 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.88 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, November 7th were paid a dividend of $0.425 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 7th. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.22%. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.