FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 11,630,000 shares, a drop of 8.8% from the March 15th total of 12,750,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 3,500,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.3 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Capital World Investors lifted its position in FirstEnergy by 38.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 68,155,129 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,498,567,000 after buying an additional 18,853,983 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in FirstEnergy by 7.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,214,574 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,128,322,000 after buying an additional 4,443,050 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in FirstEnergy by 31.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 15,827,860 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $540,996,000 after buying an additional 3,756,228 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its position in FirstEnergy by 15.8% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 9,804,657 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $359,439,000 after buying an additional 1,339,220 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in FirstEnergy by 53.9% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,307,995 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $121,271,000 after buying an additional 1,158,034 shares during the last quarter. 89.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

FirstEnergy Price Performance

Shares of FE stock traded up $0.51 on Wednesday, reaching $37.34. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 873,841 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,397,617. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $37.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.92. FirstEnergy has a 1 year low of $32.18 and a 1 year high of $41.17. The company has a current ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.10. The company has a market capitalization of $21.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.35 and a beta of 0.48.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last posted its earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 period last year, the firm posted $0.50 earnings per share. FirstEnergy’s revenue for the quarter was up .0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that FirstEnergy will post 2.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 7th will be issued a $0.425 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 6th. This is a positive change from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. This represents a $1.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.55%. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.