FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) Price Target Lowered to $48.00 at Morgan Stanley

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) had its price objective lowered by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from $52.00 to $48.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price points to a potential upside of 20.80% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Wolfe Research downgraded FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, KeyCorp reduced their target price on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, FirstEnergy currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.17.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

FirstEnergy stock traded up $0.18 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $39.74. 1,497,621 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,085,988. 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 business’s 50 day simple moving average is $39.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $41.38. The company has a market capitalization of $22.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.64, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.48. FirstEnergy has a 12-month low of $36.81 and a 12-month high of $44.97.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.70 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.53 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 6.64%. Analysts forecast that FirstEnergy will post 2.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On FirstEnergy

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of FE. Boston Partners boosted its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 73.5% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 16,503,080 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $656,309,000 after buying an additional 6,991,866 shares during the period. Soroban Capital Partners LP boosted its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 60.2% in the fourth quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 8,340,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $331,795,000 after buying an additional 3,133,083 shares during the period. Zimmer Partners LP boosted its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 33.4% in the fourth quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 4,918,857 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $195,672,000 after buying an additional 1,232,040 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its holdings in FirstEnergy by 103.8% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,843,964 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $73,334,000 after purchasing an additional 939,240 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in FirstEnergy by 118.2% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,640,808 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $65,271,000 after purchasing an additional 888,800 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

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.