Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Sells 3,514 Shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. reduced its position in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 29.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,350 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 3,514 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $370,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of FE. Tidal Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 8.4% in the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 13,083 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $505,000 after acquiring an additional 1,019 shares during the period. Atria Investments Inc grew its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 8.4% in the first quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 33,899 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,309,000 after acquiring an additional 2,634 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 550.6% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 80,895 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,124,000 after acquiring an additional 68,461 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 19.7% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 22,052 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $852,000 after acquiring an additional 3,627 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners grew its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 2.3% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 9,517,314 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $367,423,000 after acquiring an additional 218,165 shares during the period. 89.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on FE. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on FirstEnergy from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on FirstEnergy in a research report on Monday, October 14th. They set a “hold” rating and a $46.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Argus upgraded FirstEnergy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, September 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $45.91.

FirstEnergy Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of FE stock opened at $42.63 on Thursday. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 52-week low of $35.41 and a 52-week high of $44.97. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $24.57 billion, a PE ratio of 27.50, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.51. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.49.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by ($0.05). FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 6.64%. The business had revenue of $3.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.96 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.88 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.425 per share. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 7th. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 109.68%.

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.