Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE:ED) Stock Holdings Lessened by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. trimmed its stake in Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE:ED) by 21.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,057,863 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 282,559 shares during the quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s holdings in Consolidated Edison were worth $96,234,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Fiera Capital Corp increased its holdings in Consolidated Edison by 2.7% in the third quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 5,215 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $446,000 after buying an additional 135 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its holdings in Consolidated Edison by 5.2% in the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 210,731 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $17,915,000 after buying an additional 10,464 shares during the last quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. increased its holdings in Consolidated Edison by 2.5% in the third quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 13,432 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,149,000 after buying an additional 326 shares during the last quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in Consolidated Edison by 1.6% in the third quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 50,463 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,316,000 after buying an additional 773 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Consolidated Edison by 11.0% in the third quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 35,147 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,006,000 after buying an additional 3,490 shares during the last quarter. 66.29% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on ED. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Consolidated Edison from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. Barclays increased their price target on Consolidated Edison from $89.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 7th. Scotiabank lowered their price target on Consolidated Edison from $91.00 to $85.00 and set a “sector underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Consolidated Edison from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Argus upgraded Consolidated Edison to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $89.58.

Consolidated Edison Stock Performance

ED stock traded up $0.26 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $90.87. The stock had a trading volume of 1,258,477 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,112,575. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.35. Consolidated Edison, Inc. has a 52 week low of $80.46 and a 52 week high of $98.85. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $93.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $91.22. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01.

Consolidated Edison (NYSE:ED) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.26. The firm had revenue of $4.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.40 billion. Consolidated Edison had a return on equity of 8.79% and a net margin of 12.43%. Consolidated Edison’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.83 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Consolidated Edison, Inc. will post 5.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Consolidated Edison Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th were issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 14th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.65%. Consolidated Edison’s payout ratio is presently 63.72%.

Consolidated Edison Company Profile

Consolidated Edison, Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the regulated electric, gas, and steam delivery businesses in the United States. It offers electric services to approximately 3.7 million customers in New York City and Westchester County; gas to approximately 1.1 million customers in Manhattan, the Bronx, parts of Queens, and Westchester County; and steam to approximately 1,530 customers in parts of Manhattan.