Lord Abbett & CO. LLC Sells 45,793 Shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC lessened its stake in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 2.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,534,951 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 45,793 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $68,075,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in FirstEnergy by 7.9% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,346,263 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $104,057,000 after acquiring an additional 171,955 shares during the last quarter. DRW Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of FirstEnergy during the third quarter worth about $1,154,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. grew its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 3.3% in the second quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 1,317,521 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $50,422,000 after purchasing an additional 42,484 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its holdings in FirstEnergy by 52.7% during the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 87,811 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,361,000 after purchasing an additional 30,309 shares during the period. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new position in FirstEnergy during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $596,000. Institutional investors own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on FE shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on FirstEnergy from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. 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. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $40.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $46.27.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

Shares of FE opened at $40.27 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.13 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $41.61. FirstEnergy Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $35.41 and a fifty-two week high of $44.97. The stock has a market cap of $23.21 billion, a PE ratio of 25.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.51. 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 (NYSE:FE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.90 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $3.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.96 billion. FirstEnergy had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 6.64%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.88 EPS. Analysts anticipate that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 7th were given a $0.425 dividend. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.22%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 7th. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 109.68%.

FirstEnergy 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.