FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) Shares Purchased by California Public Employees Retirement System

California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 6.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,064,833 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 177,199 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned 0.53% of FirstEnergy worth $112,357,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in FirstEnergy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in FirstEnergy by 327.3% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,034 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 792 shares during the last quarter. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in FirstEnergy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Authentikos Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in FirstEnergy in the third quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new position in FirstEnergy in the third quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of FirstEnergy in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $45.00 target price on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded FirstEnergy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, FirstEnergy currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.80.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

FirstEnergy stock opened at $38.12 on Wednesday. FirstEnergy Corp. has a one year low of $32.18 and a one year high of $41.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.10, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.48. The business has a fifty day moving average of $37.76 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.07. The company has a market cap of $21.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.06 and a beta of 0.48.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 13.52% and a net margin of 8.56%. FirstEnergy’s quarterly revenue was up .0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.50 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.425 per share. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.46%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 6th. This is an increase from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. FirstEnergy’s payout ratio is 90.61%.

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.