FirstEnergy Corporation $FE Stock: Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Grows Position

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its position in FirstEnergy Corporation (NYSE:FE) by 6.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 291,324 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,867 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $12,623,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Energy Income Partners LLC bought a new position in FirstEnergy during the second quarter valued at approximately $97,602,000. Electron Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in FirstEnergy by 103.2% in the 1st quarter. Electron Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,991,914 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $151,570,000 after acquiring an additional 1,519,737 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of FirstEnergy in the second quarter valued at about $62,161,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 157.2% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,273,916 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $55,199,000 after acquiring an additional 778,617 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 7.5% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 9,971,706 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $508,158,000 after acquiring an additional 694,449 shares during the last quarter. 89.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $54.00 to $49.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $50.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 19th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on FirstEnergy from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 21st. New Street Research set a $47.00 price target on FirstEnergy in a research report on Tuesday, October 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of FirstEnergy in a research report on Thursday, October 22nd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $50.77.

FirstEnergy Stock Performance

Shares of FE stock opened at $46.53 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $45.52 and a 200 day moving average of $47.51. FirstEnergy Corporation has a 52 week low of $42.67 and a 52 week high of $52.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.37, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $4.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.24 billion. FirstEnergy had a net margin of 7.40% and a return on equity of 11.07%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.83 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that FirstEnergy Corporation will post 2.74 earnings per share for the current year.

FirstEnergy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 6th will be given a $0.4650 dividend. This represents a $1.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 6th. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 89.42%.

About FirstEnergy

FirstEnergy Corp. is an investor-owned electric utility holding company focused primarily on regulated electricity transmission and distribution. Through its utility subsidiaries, it delivers electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers across parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia and Maryland. The company’s operations include maintaining local electric distribution networks and owning and operating high-voltage transmission infrastructure across portions of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic.