Scotiabank Has Lowered Expectations for FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) Stock Price

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) had its price objective decreased by Scotiabank from $50.00 to $44.00 in a report released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. Scotiabank currently has a sector outperform rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on FE. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of FirstEnergy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Guggenheim dropped their target price on shares of FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of FirstEnergy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered 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 report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.33.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

Shares of FE opened at $38.79 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.03, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.52. FirstEnergy has a twelve month low of $36.01 and a twelve month high of $44.97.

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 company had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.53 billion. FirstEnergy had a net margin of 6.64% and a return on equity of 11.38%. Equities analysts forecast that FirstEnergy will post 2.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be issued a $0.425 dividend. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. FirstEnergy’s payout ratio is 109.68%.

Institutional Trading of FirstEnergy

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 69.3% in the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 623 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 255 shares in the last quarter. Kestra Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of FirstEnergy in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. True Wealth Design LLC lifted its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 4,571.4% in the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 654 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 640 shares during the period. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of FirstEnergy in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Finally, WASHINGTON TRUST Co lifted its stake in shares of FirstEnergy by 293.0% in the fourth quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co now owns 786 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 586 shares during the period. 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.