Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) Given Average Recommendation of "Hold" by Analysts

Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the fourteen brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $41.33.

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on EXC. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Exelon from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Exelon from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Barclays lifted their target price on Exelon from $41.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Exelon in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $46.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their target price on Exelon from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th.

Exelon Stock Up 2.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:EXC traded up $0.99 during trading on Friday, hitting $39.11. 9,038,601 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,756,319. Exelon has a 52 week low of $33.35 and a 52 week high of $41.42. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66. The company has a market cap of $39.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $39.68 and a 200-day moving average price of $37.79.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.04. Exelon had a return on equity of 9.47% and a net margin of 10.60%. The business had revenue of $6.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.67 EPS. Exelon's revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Exelon will post 2.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Exelon Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.89%. Exelon's dividend payout ratio is currently 62.55%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in 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 period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Exelon by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 60,169,219 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,439,862,000 after purchasing an additional 2,156,259 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 16,686,526 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Exelon by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,945,791 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,048,823,000 after purchasing an additional 403,542 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its stake in Exelon by 18.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,782,549 shares of the company's stock valued at $477,782,000 after purchasing an additional 1,858,502 shares during the period. 80.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.