CNB Bank Sells 884 Shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

CNB Bank decreased its position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 43.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,150 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 884 shares during the period. CNB Bank’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $46,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in FE. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 60,042 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,388,000 after buying an additional 8,446 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV lifted its stake in FirstEnergy by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV now owns 244,360 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,721,000 after acquiring an additional 4,349 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in FirstEnergy by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 752,015 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $29,915,000 after acquiring an additional 8,712 shares in the last quarter. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new position in FirstEnergy during the 4th quarter valued at $963,000. Finally, Marcum Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 8,347 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $332,000 after purchasing an additional 350 shares in the last quarter. 89.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FE has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Scotiabank upgraded shares of FirstEnergy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $45.00 to $50.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted 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. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of FirstEnergy in a report on Monday, October 14th. They set a “hold” rating and a $46.00 target price on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, FirstEnergy presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.27.

FirstEnergy Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE FE opened at $39.92 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $23.01 billion, a PE ratio of 25.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.56. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $40.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.72. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 52-week low of $35.41 and a 52-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 the consensus estimate of $0.90 by ($0.05). FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 6.64%. The business had revenue of $3.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.96 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.88 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.425 per share. This represents a $1.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.26%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th. FirstEnergy’s payout ratio is presently 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.