FirstEnergy Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:FE)

FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) was the target of some unusual options trading on Monday. Investors bought 6,197 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 444% compared to the average volume of 1,140 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,843,901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,619,270,000 after buying an additional 508,570 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 73.5% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 16,503,080 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $656,309,000 after buying an additional 6,991,866 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,527,440 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $497,009,000 after buying an additional 329,049 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 9,318,905 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $371,911,000 after buying an additional 220,433 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Soroban Capital Partners LP grew its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 60.2% during the fourth quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 8,340,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $331,795,000 after buying an additional 3,133,083 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Wolfe Research downgraded FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. UBS Group boosted their target price on FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.00.

FirstEnergy Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE FE traded down $0.22 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $39.34. 767,081 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,117,864. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $39.95 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.30. The company has a quick ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58. FirstEnergy has a 52 week low of $36.81 and a 52 week high of $44.97. The stock has a market cap of $22.69 billion, a PE ratio of 25.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.48.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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). FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 6.64%. The company had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.53 billion. Analysts forecast that FirstEnergy will post 2.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.445 per share. This is a boost from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 7th. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.52%. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 104.71%.

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.