FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) Increases Dividend to $0.45 Per Share

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

FirstEnergy has raised its dividend by an average of 2.6% per year over the last three years. FirstEnergy has a payout ratio of 60.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 Stock Down 0.8 %

NYSE:FE traded down $0.33 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $39.58. 4,817,995 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,088,666. FirstEnergy has a 12-month low of $36.81 and a 12-month high of $44.97. The business has a 50-day moving average of $39.93 and a two-hundred day moving average of $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 stock has a market capitalization of $22.82 billion, a PE ratio of 25.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.48.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analysts’ expectations of $3.53 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 6.64%. On average, equities analysts forecast that FirstEnergy will post 2.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Guggenheim decreased their price target 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. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective 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. KeyCorp cut their price objective 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. Finally, Wolfe Research lowered shares of FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $45.33.

Institutional Trading of FirstEnergy

A hedge fund recently bought a new stake in FirstEnergy stock. Brighton Jones LLC bought a new stake in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 6,441 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $256,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

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.