FirstEnergy Corporation (NYSE:FE) Stock Has Average Target Price of $52.58

FirstEnergy Corporation (NYSE:FE) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen brokerages that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and seven have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $52.58.

FE has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Barclays dropped their price objective on FirstEnergy from $55.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $49.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 18th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of FirstEnergy in a report on Monday, September 14th. Wall Street Zen upgraded FirstEnergy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 19th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, June 11th.

Institutional Trading of FirstEnergy

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in FirstEnergy by 10.5% in the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 16,268 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $773,000 after buying an additional 1,550 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in FirstEnergy by 7.7% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,134,601 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $101,479,000 after acquiring an additional 152,346 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its position in FirstEnergy by 129.6% during the second quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 55,961 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,660,000 after acquiring an additional 31,591 shares during the last quarter. National Pension Service lifted its position in FirstEnergy by 3.2% during the second quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,014,031 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $48,207,000 after acquiring an additional 31,445 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Engineers Gate Manager LP boosted its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 612.9% during the second quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 93,410 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,441,000 after acquiring an additional 80,308 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

FirstEnergy Stock Performance

Shares of FE stock opened at $43.00 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $24.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.88, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.45. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $46.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $47.62. FirstEnergy has a one year low of $42.67 and a one year high of $52.34.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.50. FirstEnergy had a net margin of 6.86% and a return on equity of 10.51%. The company had revenue of $3.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.51 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.52 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that FirstEnergy will post 2.74 EPS for the current year.

FirstEnergy Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 7th were given a $0.4650 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 7th. This represents a $1.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.3%. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 98.94%.

About FirstEnergy

FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) is an electric utility holding company focused on the transmission and distribution of electricity. Through its regulated operating companies, the company delivers power to residential, commercial and industrial customers and maintains the local infrastructure needed to support reliable electric service.

FirstEnergy’s utility operations include Ohio Edison, The Illuminating Company, Toledo Edison, Met-Ed, Penelec, Penn Power, West Penn Power, Jersey Central Power & Light and Mon Power, among others.