Exelon Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:EXC)

Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock traders bought 8,339 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 156% compared to the typical daily volume of 3,252 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

EXC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America reduced their target price on shares of Exelon from $38.00 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 19th. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of Exelon from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Exelon from $41.00 to $39.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Exelon from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Mizuho raised shares of Exelon from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $36.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.09.

Exelon Stock Performance

Exelon stock opened at $37.55 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $37.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.54. The business has a 50 day moving average of $36.43 and a 200-day moving average of $37.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.73. Exelon has a 1 year low of $33.35 and a 1 year high of $43.71.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $5.37 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.87 billion. Exelon had a net margin of 10.72% and a return on equity of 9.40%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.43 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Exelon will post 2.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Exelon Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 4th were given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This is an increase from Exelon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.05%. Exelon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 65.24%.

Institutional Trading of Exelon

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Exelon in the 1st quarter worth $270,000. Cibc World Market Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Exelon by 21.4% in the 1st quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 19,872 shares of the company’s stock worth $947,000 after purchasing an additional 3,509 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Exelon by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,063,174 shares of the company’s stock worth $98,262,000 after purchasing an additional 12,105 shares in the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Exelon by 8.8% in the 1st quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 4,639 shares of the company’s stock worth $219,000 after purchasing an additional 376 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Exelon by 77.9% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 380,426 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,117,000 after purchasing an additional 166,614 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.92% of the company’s stock.

About Exelon

Exelon Corporation, a utility services holding company, engages in the energy distribution and transmission businesses in the United States and Canada. The company is involved in the purchase and regulated retail sale of electricity and natural gas, transmission and distribution of electricity, and distribution of natural gas to retail customers.