Aptus Capital Advisors LLC Takes Position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Aptus Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 4,556 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $202,000.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in FE. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. grew its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 3.3% in the second quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 1,317,521 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $50,422,000 after acquiring an additional 42,484 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its position in FirstEnergy by 52.7% in the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 87,811 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,361,000 after purchasing an additional 30,309 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of FirstEnergy during the 2nd quarter valued at about $596,000. Capital International Inc. CA lifted its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 89.3% in 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, Vaughan David Investments LLC IL boosted its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 2.3% in the second quarter. Vaughan David Investments LLC IL now owns 1,088,770 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $41,667,000 after buying an additional 24,512 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of FirstEnergy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Bank of America upped their price objective on FirstEnergy from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on 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 FirstEnergy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price objective on FirstEnergy from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, FirstEnergy currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $46.00.

FirstEnergy Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of FE opened at $41.51 on Friday. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 1 year low of $35.41 and a 1 year high of $44.97. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.12 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 0.56 and a quick ratio of 0.46. The firm has a market cap of $23.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.51.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last announced 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 net margin of 6.64% and a return on equity of 11.38%. The company had revenue of $3.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.96 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.425 per share. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 7th. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 109.68%.

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.