FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) Hits New 52-Week High – Here’s What Happened

FirstEnergy Corporation (NYSE:FE)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $51.39 and last traded at $51.1340, with a volume of 1135197 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $51.16.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on FirstEnergy from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Barclays dropped their price target on FirstEnergy from $51.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $49.00 to $46.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Wolfe Research raised shares of FirstEnergy from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of FirstEnergy in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, FirstEnergy has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.31.

FirstEnergy Stock Up 0.4%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.57. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $47.27 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $45.95. The stock has a market cap of $29.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.85, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.61.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $3.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.20 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 10.50% and a net margin of 6.76%.During the same period last year, the company earned $0.67 earnings per share. FirstEnergy has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.620-2.820 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that FirstEnergy Corporation will post 2.66 earnings per share for the current year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 7th will be paid a $0.465 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 7th. This represents a $1.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.7%. This is an increase from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 105.68%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FE. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its stake in FirstEnergy by 198.1% during the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 6,888,967 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $277,350,000 after purchasing an additional 4,578,375 shares in the last quarter. Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. acquired a new stake in shares of FirstEnergy in the fourth quarter valued at $123,018,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON bought a new position in FirstEnergy during the fourth quarter valued at about $110,332,000. Boston Partners boosted its stake in FirstEnergy by 13.5% during the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 18,344,403 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $841,161,000 after buying an additional 2,185,400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in FirstEnergy by 56.0% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,506,251 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $246,515,000 after acquiring an additional 1,977,504 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

About FirstEnergy

FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) is a U.S.-based electric utility holding company headquartered in Akron, Ohio. The company’s primary business is the delivery of electricity through its regulated transmission and distribution utilities, serving residential, commercial and industrial customers across parts of the Midwest and Mid‑Atlantic. FirstEnergy’s service territory includes states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and West Virginia, and it operates primarily within the PJM regional transmission organization.

FirstEnergy’s core activities center on owning and operating electric distribution networks and transmission systems, maintaining and upgrading grid infrastructure, managing storm response and restoration, and offering customer programs that include energy efficiency and reliability services.