Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the fourteen analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $41.08.

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Exelon from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Exelon in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $46.00 target price for the company. Scotiabank upped their target price on Exelon from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Barclays upped their target price on Exelon from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Exelon from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th.

Institutional Trading of Exelon

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EXC. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Exelon by 112.4% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 31,527,396 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,184,483,000 after buying an additional 16,686,526 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Exelon by 16.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 105,310,761 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,956,525,000 after purchasing an additional 14,749,899 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Exelon by 666.2% in the 2nd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 3,583,477 shares of the company’s stock valued at $124,024,000 after purchasing an additional 3,115,763 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of Exelon in the 1st quarter valued at $96,859,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Exelon by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 93,146,101 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,343,945,000 after purchasing an additional 2,352,547 shares during the last quarter. 80.92% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Exelon Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:EXC opened at $40.77 on Friday. Exelon has a 12-month low of $33.35 and a 12-month high of $41.48. The company has a market capitalization of $40.79 billion, a PE ratio of 17.57, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.53. The business has a 50 day moving average of $38.43 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.07. Exelon had a return on equity of 9.40% and a net margin of 10.65%. The company had revenue of $5.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.98 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.41 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Exelon will post 2.45 EPS for the current year.

Exelon Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 12th were issued a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. Exelon’s payout ratio is currently 65.52%.

Exelon Company Profile

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.