Oakworth Capital Inc. Increases Stake in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Oakworth Capital Inc. lifted its stake in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 11,111.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 3,027 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,000 shares during the period. Oakworth Capital Inc.’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $111,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in FirstEnergy by 5.5% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,648,832 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $75,615,000 after buying an additional 86,132 shares in the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. lifted its position in FirstEnergy by 10.1% during the first quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 10,066 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $461,000 after buying an additional 923 shares in the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its position in FirstEnergy by 26.5% during the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 9,044 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $415,000 after buying an additional 1,892 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its position in FirstEnergy by 51.0% during the first quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 618,302 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $28,355,000 after buying an additional 208,803 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prudential PLC acquired a new position in FirstEnergy during the first quarter valued at approximately $577,000. 89.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FE has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of FirstEnergy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, February 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of FirstEnergy in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $45.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $40.38.

FirstEnergy Stock Up 1.7 %

FE stock opened at $37.45 on Thursday. 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 1-year low of $32.18 and a 1-year high of $41.17. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $37.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $36.92. The firm has a market cap of $21.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.69 and a beta of 0.48.

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

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.425 per share. This is an increase from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 6th. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.54%. FirstEnergy’s payout ratio is 90.61%.

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.