FirstEnergy key statistics and ratios
In fiscal 2025, FirstEnergy had return on equity of 8.2%, an operating margin of 14.6%, debt equal to 212.3% of equity and a current ratio of 0.57. Each ratio below is calculated from the figures on its income statement, balance sheet and cash flow pages.
Financial ratios
| Fiscal year | 2009Dec 2009 | 2010Dec 2010 | 2011Dec 2011 | 2012Dec 2012 | 2013Dec 2013 | 2014Dec 2014 | 2015Dec 2015 | 2016Dec 2016 | 2017Dec 2017 | 2018Dec 2018 | 2019Dec 2019 | 2020Dec 2020 | 2021Dec 2021 | 2022Dec 2022 | 2023Dec 2023 | 2024Dec 2024 | 2025Dec 2025 | LTMSept 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating margin | 13.0% | 13.1% | 10.4% | 14.0% | 10.6% | 7.1% | 15.3% | 19.2% | 22.2% | 22.2% | 22.7% | 20.0% | 15.5% | 15.3% | 17.6% | 17.6% | 14.6% | 14.9% |
| Net margin | 6.7% | 5.6% | 5.5% | 5.0% | 2.6% | 2.0% | 3.8% | −57.7% | −15.8% | 12.0% | 8.3% | 10.0% | 11.5% | 3.3% | 8.6% | 7.3% | 6.8% | 7.4% |
| Free-cash-flow margin | 2.0% | 9.7% | 5.8% | −2.3% | 0.2% | −4.0% | 5.0% | 5.1% | 11.2% | −11.2% | −1.8% | −11.4% | 2.9% | −1.3% | −15.3% | −8.5% | −6.7% | −13.3% |
| Return on equity | 10.2% | 8.5% | 8.0% | 5.8% | 3.0% | 2.4% | 4.7% | −66.2% | −33.9% | 25.1% | 13.2% | 15.2% | 16.1% | 4.3% | 10.7% | 8.5% | 8.2% | 9.4% |
| Return on assets | 2.5% | 2.1% | 2.1% | 1.6% | 0.8% | 0.6% | 1.1% | −13.0% | −4.0% | 3.3% | 2.2% | 2.5% | 2.9% | 0.9% | 2.3% | 1.9% | 1.9% | 2.1% |
| Asset turnover | 0.37 | 0.38 | 0.39 | 0.31 | 0.30 | 0.30 | 0.29 | 0.22 | 0.26 | 0.27 | 0.27 | 0.25 | 0.25 | 0.27 | 0.27 | 0.27 | 0.28 | 0.28 |
| Current ratio | 0.64 | 0.79 | 0.69 | 0.50 | 0.53 | 0.60 | 0.54 | 0.41 | 0.76 | 0.52 | 0.50 | 0.74 | 0.73 | 0.61 | 0.48 | 0.56 | 0.57 | 0.38 |
| Debt to equity | 174.4% | 164.3% | 130.5% | 146.3% | 162.7% | 175.4% | 176.9% | 361.6% | 575.2% | 286.2% | 301.0% | 338.2% | 275.0% | 213.0% | 238.7% | 192.9% | 212.3% | 231.6% |
| Interest cover (operating income ÷ interest) | — | — | 1.7x | 2.1x | 1.6x | 1.0x | 2.0x | 2.1x | 2.4x | 2.2x | 2.4x | 2.0x | 1.5x | 1.8x | 2.0x | 2.1x | 1.8x | 1.8x |
| Effective tax rate | 17.7% | 39.2% | 39.8% | 41.9% | 34.2% | −24.6% | 35.3% | 48.9% | — | 32.4% | 19.1% | 11.2% | 20.5% | 69.5% | 18.2% | 25.1% | 18.5% | 17.0% |
| Capital spending as % of revenue | 17.0% | 13.3% | 13.2% | 17.6% | 17.7% | 22.0% | 18.0% | 26.5% | 23.7% | 23.8% | 24.2% | 24.6% | 22.3% | 22.9% | 26.1% | 29.9% | 31.2% | 33.0% |
| Free cash flow ÷ net income | 30.0% | 174.7% | 105.5% | −46.5% | 6.1% | −200.3% | 130.8% | — | — | −93.8% | −21.7% | −114.4% | 25.3% | −40.6% | −178.7% | −116.5% | −98.5% | −179.8% |
| Dividends ÷ net income | 76.8% | 90.3% | 99.5% | 119.5% | 234.7% | 202.0% | 105.0% | — | — | 52.7% | 89.3% | 78.3% | 66.2% | 219.5% | 82.2% | 99.2% | 99.6% | 87.6% |
| Dividends and buybacks ÷ free cash flow | 255.7% | 51.7% | 94.3% | — | >999% | — | 80.3% | 111.5% | 52.3% | — | — | — | 262.0% | — | — | — | — | — |
| Quarter | 2024 Q4Dec 2024 | 2025 Q1Mar 2025 | 2025 Q2Jun 2025 | 2025 Q3Sept 2025 | 2025 Q4Dec 2025 | 2026 Q1Mar 2026 | 2026 Q2Jun 2026 | 2026 Q3Sept 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating margin | 19.3% | 20.0% | 19.1% | 20.0% | −0.6% | 19.7% | 18.4% | 20.5% |
| Net margin | 8.2% | 9.6% | 7.9% | 10.6% | −1.3% | 9.6% | 7.8% | 12.2% |
| Free-cash-flow margin | −7.9% | −9.8% | −4.3% | −11.1% | −0.8% | −26.3% | −9.7% | −14.6% |
| Current ratio | 0.56 | 0.42 | 0.61 | 0.75 | 0.57 | 0.52 | 0.54 | 0.38 |
| Debt to equity | 188.5% | 181.9% | 187.9% | 201.6% | 209.7% | 218.4% | 220.2% | 215.0% |
Financial health
- Short-term assets cover short-term liabilities $3.3bn of assets due within a year against $8.7bn of liabilities due within a year.
- Short-term assets cover long-term liabilities $3.3bn short-term assets against $36.6bn of longer-dated liabilities.
- More cash than debt $48m of cash against $27.9bn of debt.
- Debt below 40% of shareholders' equity Debt is 215% of equity.
- Debt burden no higher than five years ago Debt to equity moved from 248% to 215% over five years.
- A year's operating cash flow covers at least 20% of debt $3.2bn of operating cash flow against $27.9bn of debt.
- Operating profit covers interest at least five times over Operating income of $2.4bn against $1.3bn of interest.
Moat
Weak moat
How hard FirstEnergy's competitive advantage looks for rivals to wear away, judged from 10 years of its own filings: returns on capital, pricing power, profit durability, cash conversion and discipline.
- Returns on capital 0 / 20
Net income has been a median 1.9% of total assets over 10 years.
- Durability 5 / 20
Operating margin has been a median 17.3%; its worst year was -60.2%.
- Cash conversion 2 / 20
Free cash flow was positive in 2 of 10 years, at a median -8.0% of revenue.
- Discipline 15 / 20
The diluted share count rose 6.4% over five years; stock-based pay has been a median -0.1% of revenue.
AI disruption exposure: Low. In this industry, the business rests on physical assets, regulated networks or products AI itself depends on.
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