Wesbanco Bank Inc. Sells 654 Shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Wesbanco Bank Inc. lowered its position in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 10.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,518 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 654 shares during the period. Wesbanco Bank Inc.’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $220,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position in FirstEnergy by 5.3% during the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 9,098,472 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $403,517,000 after buying an additional 457,231 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in FirstEnergy by 1.0% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,546,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $153,081,000 after buying an additional 34,151 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in FirstEnergy by 7.9% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,346,263 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $104,057,000 after buying an additional 171,955 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in FirstEnergy by 5.8% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,896,140 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $72,570,000 after buying an additional 104,253 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,622,544 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $71,960,000 after purchasing an additional 5,500 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on FE. Barclays raised their target price on FirstEnergy from $40.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded FirstEnergy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. 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. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Scotiabank raised FirstEnergy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $45.00 to $50.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, FirstEnergy presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.27.

FirstEnergy Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE FE opened at $39.18 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $22.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 0.52. 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 Corp. has a twelve month low of $35.41 and a twelve month high of $44.97. The business’s fifty day moving average is $40.40 and its 200 day moving average is $41.77.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.90 by ($0.05). The company 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.88 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th will be given a dividend of $0.425 per share. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.