Coldstream Capital Management Inc. Takes Position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Coldstream Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 6,073 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $267,000.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 162.1% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 48,990 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,875,000 after purchasing an additional 30,298 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 246.6% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,026 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 730 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management lifted its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 5.0% during the 2nd quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 7,222 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $285,000 after acquiring an additional 341 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in FirstEnergy by 3.3% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in FirstEnergy by 8.5% in the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 535,962 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $20,511,000 after purchasing an additional 41,952 shares during the period. 89.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FE has been the topic of several research reports. Argus upgraded shares of FirstEnergy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, September 20th. Bank of America raised their price objective on FirstEnergy from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Scotiabank raised shares of FirstEnergy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of FirstEnergy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. One 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.27.

FirstEnergy Stock Performance

FE stock opened at $39.93 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58. The firm has a market cap of $23.01 billion, a PE ratio of 25.76, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.51. The business has a 50 day moving average of $42.08 and a 200-day moving average of $41.64. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 12-month low of $35.41 and a 12-month high of $44.97.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $3.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.96 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 6.64%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.88 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.68 earnings per share for the current year.

FirstEnergy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, November 7th were paid a $0.425 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 7th. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.26%. FirstEnergy’s payout ratio is 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.