New Age Alpha Advisors LLC Acquires 137,231 Shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

New Age Alpha Advisors LLC grew its stake in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 34,222.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 137,632 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 137,231 shares during the quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $5,475,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Kestra Investment Management LLC bought a new position in FirstEnergy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of FirstEnergy in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. True Wealth Design LLC grew its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 4,571.4% in the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 654 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 640 shares in the last quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co increased its holdings in FirstEnergy by 293.0% during the fourth quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co now owns 786 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 586 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in FirstEnergy during the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on FE. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Wolfe Research cut FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Guggenheim cut their price objective on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.00.

FirstEnergy Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of FE stock opened at $40.05 on Friday. FirstEnergy Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $36.81 and a fifty-two week high of $44.97. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $39.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $41.15. 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 $23.10 billion, a PE ratio of 25.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.48.

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

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.445 per share. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.44%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 7th. This is a positive change from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. FirstEnergy’s payout ratio is 104.71%.

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.