Top 5 Electric Utility Dividend Stocks To Buy

2. FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 40

Dividend Yield (as of May 12): 3.72%

FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) is an Ohio-based electric utility firm which serves approximately 6 million customers in the states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia,  New Jersey, New York and Ohio. It generates electricity using coal-fired plants, nuclear reactors, natural gas, wind and solar power generating facilities. As of May 12, FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) has grown 14.93% in the last 12 months, and 7.31% in the last 6 months.

FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) on May 4 declared $0.39 per share quarterly dividend, in line with previous. This brings the company’s dividend yield to 3.72% as of May 12.

Credit Suisse analyst Nicholas Campanella on April 25 initiated coverage of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) with an ‘Outperform’ rating and price target of $51. The analyst sees the company better positioned than before to address core regulated growth with limited equity issuances, and sees upside potential to its current valuation.

40 hedge funds held positions in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, with a combined value of $1.75 billion. This shows a positive trend from the previous quarter where 38 hedge funds held $1.47 billion worth of stakes in the firm. The most prominent shareholder of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) at the close of the fourth quarter was Icahn Capital LP, with approximately 19 million shares valued at $788.9 million.

Here is what ClearBridge Investments had to say about FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) in its Q4 2021 investor letter:

“On a regional level, the Strategy’s largest exposure is in the U.S. and Canada (44%), consisting of regulated and contracted utilities (31%) and economically sensitive user-pays infrastructure (13%).
During the quarter we initiated new positions in U.S. electric utility FirstEnergy.  With supply chain issues, higher housing costs, higher commodity prices and producer price inflation remaining square in the sights for 2022, we think higher inflation is a risk for global markets. We expect growth to slow to trend or below by mid-2022 and U.S.”