Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC Buys New Holdings in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC acquired a new stake in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 6,037 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $221,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in FE. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 8.5% in the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 139,976 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,235,000 after acquiring an additional 10,976 shares during the period. AJOVista LLC bought a new stake in FirstEnergy in the 4th quarter valued at about $141,000. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of FirstEnergy during the 4th quarter worth approximately $279,000. Natixis Advisors L.P. grew its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 13.7% during the 4th quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 128,205 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,700,000 after purchasing an additional 15,468 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. bought a new position in shares of FirstEnergy during the fourth quarter worth approximately $232,000. 89.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on FE. Scotiabank cut their price target on FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on FirstEnergy in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $45.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com raised FirstEnergy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, FirstEnergy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.80.

FirstEnergy Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE FE opened at $39.12 on Tuesday. FirstEnergy Corp. has a twelve month low of $32.18 and a twelve month high of $40.42. The business’s fifty day moving average is $38.02 and its 200 day moving average is $37.27. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59. The company has a market cap of $22.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.39 and a beta of 0.48.

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. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 12.45% and a net margin of 8.22%. The company had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.50 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up .0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 7th will be given a dividend of $0.425 per share. This is a positive change from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.35%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 6th. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 94.25%.

FirstEnergy Company 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.