FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.45 Per Share

FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, March 19th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 7th will be paid a dividend of 0.445 per share by the utilities provider on Sunday, June 1st. This represents a $1.78 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.50%. This is a 4.7% increase from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43.

FirstEnergy has increased its dividend payment by an average of 2.6% annually over the last three years. FirstEnergy has a payout ratio of 60.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect FirstEnergy to earn $2.89 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.70 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 58.8%.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:FE traded down $0.33 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $39.58. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,817,995 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,088,666. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $39.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.56. The company has a market cap of $22.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.48. FirstEnergy has a 12-month low of $36.81 and a 12-month high of $44.97.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.70 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.53 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 6.64%. On average, analysts forecast that FirstEnergy will post 2.66 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on FE. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. KeyCorp decreased their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Guggenheim reduced their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $45.33.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On FirstEnergy

A hedge fund recently bought a new stake in FirstEnergy stock. Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new stake in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 6,441 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $256,000. 89.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.