Scotiabank Issues Negative Estimate for FirstEnergy Earnings

FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) – Scotiabank cut their FY2025 earnings estimates for shares of FirstEnergy in a research note issued on Wednesday, March 19th. Scotiabank analyst A. Weisel now expects that the utilities provider will post earnings of $2.52 per share for the year, down from their previous forecast of $2.89. Scotiabank currently has a “Sector Outperform” rating and a $44.00 target price on the stock. The consensus estimate for FirstEnergy’s current full-year earnings is $2.66 per share. Scotiabank also issued estimates for FirstEnergy’s FY2026 earnings at $2.70 EPS.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. KeyCorp decreased their price target 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. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Guggenheim decreased their target price on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $45.00.

FirstEnergy Trading Down 2.7 %

Shares of FE stock opened at $37.95 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.92 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.22. FirstEnergy has a 1-year low of $36.81 and a 1-year high of $44.97. The company has a market cap of $21.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.48, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 0.56 and a quick ratio of 0.46.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.53 billion. FirstEnergy had a net margin of 6.64% and a return on equity of 11.38%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On FirstEnergy

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FE. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of FirstEnergy by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,843,901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,619,270,000 after buying an additional 508,570 shares during the period. Boston Partners raised its position in FirstEnergy by 73.5% in the fourth 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. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in FirstEnergy by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,527,440 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $497,009,000 after purchasing an additional 329,049 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 9,318,905 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $371,911,000 after purchasing an additional 220,433 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Soroban Capital Partners LP grew its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 60.2% during the 4th quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 8,340,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $331,795,000 after purchasing an additional 3,133,083 shares during the period. 89.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 7th will be given a dividend of $0.445 per share. This is a boost from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $1.78 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.69%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 7th. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 104.71%.

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.