Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. Purchases Shares of 6,725 FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. acquired a new position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 6,725 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $267,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FE. Boston Partners grew its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 73.5% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 16,503,080 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $656,309,000 after buying an additional 6,991,866 shares in the last quarter. Amundi grew its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 103.8% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,843,964 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $73,334,000 after buying an additional 939,240 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of FirstEnergy in the 4th quarter worth $30,069,000. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC purchased a new position in shares of FirstEnergy in the 4th quarter worth $12,198,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 9,318,905 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $371,911,000 after buying an additional 220,433 shares in the last quarter. 89.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on FE shares. Wolfe Research cut shares of FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. KeyCorp dropped their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.00.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

Shares of FE stock opened at $39.62 on Monday. 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 company has a market capitalization 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 company’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $41.30. FirstEnergy Corp. has a one year low of $36.81 and a one year high of $44.97.

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

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 7th will be given a $0.445 dividend. This represents a $1.78 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 7th. This is a boost from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.