Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Acquires 12,050 Shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its holdings in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 60.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 32,022 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,050 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $1,274,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Metis Global Partners LLC grew its position in FirstEnergy by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 16,916 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $750,000 after acquiring an additional 288 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP grew its position in FirstEnergy by 59.1% during the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 861 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 320 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group grew its position in FirstEnergy by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 5,146 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $205,000 after acquiring an additional 324 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its position in FirstEnergy by 33.0% during the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,326 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 329 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Essex Financial Services Inc. grew its position in FirstEnergy by 6.2% during the 4th quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc. now owns 5,819 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $231,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FE has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. KeyCorp cut 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. Wolfe Research downgraded FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Scotiabank cut their target price on FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.33.

FirstEnergy Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of FirstEnergy stock opened at $38.79 on Friday. FirstEnergy Corp. has a one year low of $36.01 and a one year high of $44.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 0.56 and a quick ratio of 0.46. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $40.07 and its 200 day moving average is $41.74. The firm has a market cap of $22.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.03, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.52.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.70 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.53 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 6.64%. Equities research analysts anticipate that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 EPS for the current year.

FirstEnergy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th were issued a $0.425 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.38%. FirstEnergy’s 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.