Proficio Capital Partners LLC Acquires New Position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 90,105 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,584,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of FE. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC acquired a new position in shares of FirstEnergy in the fourth quarter valued at about $12,198,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 7.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,346,263 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $104,057,000 after purchasing an additional 171,955 shares during the period. DRW Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of FirstEnergy in the third quarter valued at about $1,154,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 41.8% in the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 47,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,902,000 after purchasing an additional 14,129 shares during the period. Finally, Whalen Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of FirstEnergy in the fourth quarter valued at about $664,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FE has been the topic of a number of research reports. Guggenheim cut their price objective on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wolfe Research lowered FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their target price on FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.33.

FirstEnergy Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of FE opened at $39.32 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 12 month low of $36.81 and a 12 month high of $44.97. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $40.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $41.70. The firm has a market cap of $22.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.36, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.52.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.70 by ($0.03). FirstEnergy had a net margin of 6.64% and a return on equity of 11.38%. The business had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.53 billion. Analysts predict that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th were given a $0.425 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.32%. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 100.00%.

FirstEnergy 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.