FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) Shares Purchased by Sei Investments Co.

Sei Investments Co. raised its position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 28.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 577,589 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 129,444 shares during the quarter. Sei Investments Co. owned 0.10% of FirstEnergy worth $22,104,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in FirstEnergy by 41.4% during the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 187,964 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,259,000 after purchasing an additional 54,990 shares in the last quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC grew its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 5.3% during the first quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 1,335,364 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $51,572,000 after acquiring an additional 67,469 shares in the last quarter. First Pacific Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. First Pacific Advisors LP now owns 3,481,258 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $127,623,000 after acquiring an additional 45,350 shares in the last quarter. CCM Investment Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of FirstEnergy during the fourth quarter worth about $9,867,000. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lifted its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 3.3% in the second quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 1,317,521 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $50,422,000 after acquiring an additional 42,484 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FE has been the topic of several analyst reports. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on FirstEnergy from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. 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 report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price 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. One 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. According to MarketBeat.com, FirstEnergy currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $44.45.

FirstEnergy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE FE opened at $43.79 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $42.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $40.10. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 52-week low of $32.18 and a 52-week high of $44.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.50.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.56. The business had revenue of $3.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.47 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 12.12% and a net margin of 6.61%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.47 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.7 earnings per share for the current year.

FirstEnergy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 7th will be given a dividend of $0.425 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 7th. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.88%. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 97.70%.

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.