Legal & General Group Plc Sells 111,237 Shares of FirstEnergy Corporation $FE

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy Corporation (NYSE:FE) by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,444,267 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 111,237 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.77% of FirstEnergy worth $211,280,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in FirstEnergy by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,109,341 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,049,255,000 after buying an additional 761,157 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 13.5% in the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 18,344,403 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $841,161,000 after buying an additional 2,185,400 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,463,298 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $600,351,000 after buying an additional 126,834 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,722,471 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $524,815,000 after acquiring an additional 34,014 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position 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 worth $508,158,000 after acquiring an additional 694,449 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have issued reports on FE shares. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $55.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 31st. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of FirstEnergy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. TD Cowen upgraded FirstEnergy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $56.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Friday, May 15th. UBS Group lifted their target price on FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on FirstEnergy from $53.00 to $52.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 21st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.83.

FirstEnergy Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of NYSE FE opened at $46.73 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $47.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $48.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.88, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.45. FirstEnergy Corporation has a 1-year low of $42.87 and a 1-year high of $52.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.86, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.46.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.50. FirstEnergy had a net margin of 6.86% and a return on equity of 10.51%. The business had revenue of $3.68 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.51 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.52 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that FirstEnergy Corporation will post 2.74 EPS for the current year.

FirstEnergy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Investors of record on Friday, August 7th will be issued a $0.465 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 7th. This represents a $1.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.0%. FirstEnergy’s payout ratio is presently 98.94%.

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.