California Public Employees Retirement System Acquires 177,199 Shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

California Public Employees Retirement System raised its holdings in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 6.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 3,064,833 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 177,199 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $112,357,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of FE. MGO One Seven LLC raised its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 4.7% during the third quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 6,425 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $220,000 after acquiring an additional 287 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP increased its holdings in FirstEnergy by 9.3% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 3,728 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $137,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in FirstEnergy by 1.2% in the third quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 28,575 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $977,000 after purchasing an additional 339 shares during the last quarter. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in FirstEnergy by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC now owns 72,037 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,641,000 after acquiring an additional 341 shares during the period. Finally, Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in FirstEnergy by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,595 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $278,000 after acquiring an additional 361 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on FE shares. Bank of America boosted their target price on FirstEnergy from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. StockNews.com cut FirstEnergy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. 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 objective for the company. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price target on FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.80.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

NYSE:FE opened at $38.12 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.10. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $37.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $37.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.06 and a beta of 0.48. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 12-month low of $32.18 and a 12-month high of $41.17.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 firm 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up .0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.50 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 earnings per share for the current year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.425 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 6th. This represents a $1.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.46%. This is a positive change from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 90.61%.

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.