Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Buys 4,376 Shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 41.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 15,022 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,376 shares during the quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $551,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of FE. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 7.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,214,574 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,128,322,000 after purchasing an additional 4,443,050 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in FirstEnergy by 31.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 15,827,860 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $540,996,000 after buying an additional 3,756,228 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its holdings in FirstEnergy by 122.5% in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,989,571 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $79,702,000 after buying an additional 1,095,445 shares during the period. ClearBridge Investments Ltd lifted its holdings in FirstEnergy by 58.1% in the first quarter. ClearBridge Investments Ltd now owns 2,543,588 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $116,649,000 after buying an additional 934,346 shares during the period. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted its holdings in FirstEnergy by 24.5% in the second quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 3,784,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $147,153,000 after buying an additional 744,674 shares during the period. 89.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on FE. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of FirstEnergy in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $45.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of FirstEnergy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, FirstEnergy currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $40.38.

FirstEnergy Trading Down 1.5 %

FE opened at $36.83 on Wednesday. FirstEnergy Corp. has a twelve month low of $32.18 and a twelve month high of $41.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.10, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.48. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $37.64 and its two-hundred day moving average is $36.92. The firm has a market cap of $21.20 billion, a PE ratio of 20.35 and a beta of 0.48.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.02. FirstEnergy had a net margin of 8.56% and a return on equity of 13.52%. The business had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.50 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.68 EPS for the current year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.425 per share. This represents a $1.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.62%. This is a positive change from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 6th. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 90.61%.

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.