Lee Danner & Bass Inc. Takes Position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Lee Danner & Bass Inc. purchased a new stake in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 656 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $26,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in FE. Boston Partners boosted its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 73.5% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 16,503,080 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $656,309,000 after purchasing an additional 6,991,866 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 103.8% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,843,964 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $73,334,000 after purchasing an additional 939,240 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of FirstEnergy in the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,069,000. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC purchased a new stake in shares of FirstEnergy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $12,198,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position 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 acquiring an additional 220,433 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. KeyCorp decreased their price target on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company 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. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and six have issued 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 price target of $45.00.

FirstEnergy Stock Down 0.5 %

FE opened at $39.62 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $22.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.48. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $39.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.30. The company has a current ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 12 month low of $36.81 and a 12 month high of $44.97.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.70 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $3.20 billion during 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%. On average, equities analysts expect that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 EPS for the current year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 7th will be issued a $0.445 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 7th. This represents a $1.78 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.49%. This is an increase from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. FirstEnergy’s payout ratio is currently 104.71%.

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.