FirstEnergy (FE)
Forward P/E is 16.15x against a peer median of 14.43x, a ratio of 1.12x — inside the 0.90–1.15 fairly priced band, near its top — with trailing P/E 22.59x and PEG 2.13. Latest-quarter revenue grew 11.6% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), above the peer pace, which supports sitting near the top of the band rather than above it. Delivered demand check: the electric utilities group's median growth was 8.0% year over year — demand rising, and FirstEnergy is growing faster than that pace.
What would change this label: Move to UNDERVALUED if the forward P/E compresses to about 13.0x or below (0.90x the peer median) at unchanged estimates with revenue growth staying above 8% year over year. Move to OVERVALUED if the forward P/E rises above about 16.6x (1.15x the peer median) without faster growth, or if revenue growth falls below 3% year over year while the multiple stays above 16x.
FirstEnergy delivers electricity across the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic. Its shares trade near the top of the fair range for similar utilities, at about 16 times expected earnings, while sales grew about 12%. That growth supports the price, so the shares look fairly priced, not cheap and not stretched.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window FirstEnergy returned +63.73% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for FirstEnergy: -32.7% (2022-04-20 to 2023-10-02). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E is 16.15x against a peer median of 14.43x, a ratio of 1.12x — inside the 0.90–1.15 fairly priced band, near its top — with trailing P/E 22.59x and PEG 2.13. Latest-quarter revenue grew 11.6% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), above the peer pace, which supports sitting near the top of the band rather than above it. Delivered demand check: the electric utilities group's median growth was 8.0% year over year — demand rising, and FirstEnergy is growing faster than that pace. The company’s forward P/E is 16.1× against a peer median of 14.4×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the electric utilities group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 8.0% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising. FirstEnergy grew 11.6%, faster than that pace. Latest-quarter sales growth was +11.6% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| FirstEnergy (FE) | $46.78 | 16.1× | 22.6× |
| PPL | $35.27 | 16.9× | 20.9× |
| ES | $67.43 | 14.4× | 17.5× |
| EIX | $58.69 | 9.6× | 6.1× |
| NRG | $96.52 | 9.5× | 24.9× |
| EVRG | $85.13 | 18.8× | 21.7× |
| Peer median | 14.4× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
This company does not report a gross-profit line in its SEC facts (normal for banks, payment networks and some health insurers), so profit is shown as net income instead — gross margin is marked UNVERIFIED-absent rather than estimated.
Free cash flow = cash from operations minus spending on plant and equipment, both from the company’s SEC cash-flow statement. Gaps are quarters where that spending line is not separately tagged in the filings — shown as gaps, never estimated.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Mar 2026 2026-03-31 | $4.2B | — | $405M | 0.70 | $-1.1B |
| Q/E Dec 2025 2025-12-31 | $3.8B | — | $-49M | — | $-30M |
| Q/E Sep 2025 2025-09-30 | $4.1B | — | $441M | 0.76 | $-471M |
| Q/E Jun 2025 2025-06-30 | $3.4B | — | $268M | 0.46 | $-136M |
| Q/E Mar 2025 2025-03-31 | $3.8B | — | $360M | 0.62 | $-368M |
| Q/E Dec 2024 2024-12-31 | $3.2B | — | $261M | — | $-250M |
| Q/E Sep 2024 2024-09-30 | $3.7B | — | $419M | 0.73 | $-229M |
| Q/E Jun 2024 2024-06-30 | $3.3B | — | $45M | 0.08 | $170M |
| Q/E Mar 2024 2024-03-31 | $3.3B | — | $253M | 0.44 | $-830M |
| Q/E Dec 2023 2023-12-31 | $3.1B | — | $175M | — | $-132M |
| Q/E Sep 2023 2023-09-30 | $3.5B | — | $400M | 0.69 | $-206M |
| Q/E Jun 2023 2023-06-30 | $3.0B | — | $235M | 0.41 | $-870M |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 23-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | FIRSTENERGY CORP |
| Chief executive | Brian X. Tierney (source: https://www.firstenergycorp.com/newsroom/news_articles/forbes-names-fe-among-americas-most-trusted-and-best-companies-for-2026.html) |
| Sector | Utilities — Electric Utilities — sells electricity transmission and delivery services in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic United States |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $46.78 |
| Market value (market cap) | $26.8B — share price times shares outstanding of 578,431,175 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding (latest)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $15.5B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $1.1B |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | $-1.7B |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Mar 2026 (of 23 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | +63.73% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -32.7% (2022-04-20 to 2023-10-02) |
What we could not verify
- Gross profit / gross margin: not tagged as a standalone line in this company's EDGAR company facts (common for banks, payment networks and some healthcare payers) — shown as UNVERIFIED-absent; the page charts revenue and net income instead.
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Own-history P/E range not yet compiled for this company in the Phase 1 batch run; the label rests on peer-median, growth and PEG evidence.
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0001031296.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001031296.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/FE/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.