Sentry Investment Management LLC Has $98,000 Position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Sentry Investment Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 9.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,675 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 287 shares during the quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $98,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in FirstEnergy by 7.0% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,214,574 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,128,322,000 after buying an additional 4,443,050 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 3,756,228 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 3.1% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 13,573,719 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $463,950,000 after acquiring an additional 407,350 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in FirstEnergy by 2.7% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,526,479 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $460,739,000 after acquiring an additional 300,442 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in FirstEnergy by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 8,848,344 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $324,380,000 after purchasing an additional 272,478 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on FirstEnergy in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $45.00 price target on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com cut FirstEnergy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $40.38.

FirstEnergy Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of FE opened at $37.63 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $37.71 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 0.48 and a quick ratio of 0.38. FirstEnergy Corp. has a one year low of $32.18 and a one year high of $41.17. The company has a market cap of $21.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.79 and a beta of 0.48.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 13.52% and a net margin of 8.56%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.50 EPS. Research analysts forecast that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 7th will be issued a $0.425 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 6th. This represents a $1.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.52%. This is a boost from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio is 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.