FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) Shares Sold by Russell Investments Group Ltd.

Russell Investments Group Ltd. reduced its stake in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 12.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,359,545 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 190,248 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned approximately 0.24% of FirstEnergy worth $49,841,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 31.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 15,827,860 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $540,996,000 after acquiring an additional 3,756,228 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in FirstEnergy by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 13,573,719 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $463,950,000 after purchasing an additional 407,350 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in FirstEnergy by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 8,575,866 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $293,123,000 after purchasing an additional 306,503 shares during the period. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP boosted its position in FirstEnergy by 447.1% in the 3rd quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP now owns 372,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,715,000 after buying an additional 304,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. boosted its position in FirstEnergy by 27.3% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,018,422 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $34,810,000 after buying an additional 218,439 shares during the last quarter. 89.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on FE. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. StockNews.com cut FirstEnergy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, February 12th. KeyCorp lifted their target price on FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on FirstEnergy in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $45.00 price objective on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.80.

FirstEnergy Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE:FE opened at $38.13 on Monday. FirstEnergy Corp. has a twelve month low of $32.18 and a twelve month high of $41.15. The firm has a market cap of $21.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.91 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a 50 day moving average of $37.83 and a 200-day moving average of $37.14. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.36 billion. FirstEnergy had a net margin of 8.22% and a return on equity of 12.45%. As a group, analysts anticipate that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 7th will be paid a $0.425 dividend. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.46%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 6th. This is a positive change from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 94.25%.

FirstEnergy 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.