Empowered Funds LLC Purchases 881 Shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 10.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,421 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 881 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $418,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its stake in FirstEnergy by 1.9% during the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 18,234 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $809,000 after purchasing an additional 343 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 76,488 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,392,000 after buying an additional 5,306 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its stake in FirstEnergy by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 16,916 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $750,000 after buying an additional 288 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its position in FirstEnergy by 33.3% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 40,331 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,789,000 after acquiring an additional 10,073 shares during the period. Finally, MQS Management LLC raised its stake in FirstEnergy by 116.7% during the third quarter. MQS Management LLC now owns 19,909 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $883,000 after acquiring an additional 10,723 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

NYSE FE opened at $41.79 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.56. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 52-week low of $35.41 and a 52-week high of $44.97. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.45. The stock has a market cap of $24.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.96, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.51.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.90 by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $3.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.96 billion. FirstEnergy had a net margin of 6.64% and a return on equity of 11.38%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.425 per share. This represents a $1.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.07%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 7th. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 109.68%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on FE. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Argus upgraded FirstEnergy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Seaport Res Ptn cut FirstEnergy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Bank of America lifted their price target on FirstEnergy from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $45.91.

FirstEnergy Company 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.