Marcum Wealth LLC Grows Stock Position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Marcum Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 4.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 8,347 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 350 shares during the period. Marcum Wealth LLC’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $332,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in FE. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings 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 valued at $403,517,000 after purchasing an additional 457,231 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 1.0% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,546,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $153,081,000 after purchasing an additional 34,151 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 7.6% during the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,725,050 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $104,288,000 after buying an additional 193,540 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in FirstEnergy by 7.9% in the 3rd 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 during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in FirstEnergy by 5.8% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,896,140 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $72,570,000 after buying an additional 104,253 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays increased their target price on FirstEnergy from $40.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Scotiabank raised FirstEnergy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $45.00 to $50.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of FirstEnergy in a report on Monday, October 14th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $46.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Argus raised shares of FirstEnergy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, September 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.27.

FirstEnergy Stock Performance

Shares of FirstEnergy stock opened at $39.16 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 0.56 and a quick ratio of 0.46. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 1 year low of $35.41 and a 1 year high of $44.97. The firm has a market cap of $22.57 billion, a PE ratio of 25.26, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.75.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. Analysts expect that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be given a dividend of $0.425 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.34%. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.