Investors Buy High Volume of Call Options on FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE)

FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Stock traders purchased 10,922 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 1,035% compared to the average volume of 962 call options.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FE opened at $39.32 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.70. The stock has a market cap of $22.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a quick ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58. FirstEnergy has a fifty-two week low of $36.81 and a fifty-two week high of $44.97.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last issued its quarterly 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). The company had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.53 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 6.64%. Equities analysts expect that FirstEnergy will post 2.66 EPS for the current year.

FirstEnergy Dividend Announcement

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On FirstEnergy

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Boston Partners boosted its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 73.5% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 16,503,080 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $656,309,000 after purchasing an additional 6,991,866 shares during the period. Soroban Capital Partners LP boosted its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 60.2% in the fourth quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 8,340,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $331,795,000 after buying an additional 3,133,083 shares during the period. Zimmer Partners LP increased its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 33.4% in the fourth quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 4,918,857 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $195,672,000 after acquiring an additional 1,232,040 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 103.8% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,843,964 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $73,334,000 after acquiring an additional 939,240 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 118.2% in the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,640,808 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $65,271,000 after acquiring an additional 888,800 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FE has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research cut FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. KeyCorp cut their price target on shares of FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Guggenheim decreased their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.33.

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.