Nisa Investment Advisors LLC Cuts Stake in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC cut its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 4.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 30,156 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,500 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $1,154,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital World Investors grew its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 14.3% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 77,928,914 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,009,615,000 after buying an additional 9,773,785 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 9,517,314 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $367,423,000 after purchasing an additional 218,165 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 8,930,826 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $344,908,000 after purchasing an additional 82,482 shares in the last quarter. First Pacific Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. First Pacific Advisors LP now owns 3,481,258 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $127,623,000 after purchasing an additional 45,350 shares during the last quarter. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 20.6% during the fourth quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 3,454,376 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $126,637,000 after purchasing an additional 590,815 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FE has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Scotiabank raised their price target on FirstEnergy from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. StockNews.com upgraded FirstEnergy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Mizuho increased their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, June 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, FirstEnergy has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $42.18.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

Shares of FE opened at $43.20 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.51. FirstEnergy Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $32.18 and a fifty-two week high of $43.65. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $40.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.95. The company has a market capitalization of $24.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.49.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56. The company had revenue of $3.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.47 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 12.12% and a net margin of 6.61%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.47 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.7 earnings per share for the current year.

FirstEnergy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 7th will be given a dividend of $0.425 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 7th. This represents a $1.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.94%. FirstEnergy’s payout ratio is currently 97.70%.

About FirstEnergy

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.