Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) Receives Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC - Get Free Report) has received an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the nine ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $44.13.

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Exelon from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. BMO Capital Markets restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Exelon in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Guggenheim raised Exelon from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays lifted their price target on Exelon from $42.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Evercore ISI raised Exelon from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $43.00 to $44.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Exelon news, EVP Colette D. Honorable sold 1,463 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.57, for a total value of $59,353.91. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 2,271 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $92,134.47. This represents a 39.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Exelon

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Exelon by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 127,335,351 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,792,903,000 after acquiring an additional 3,064,673 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Exelon by 3.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 60,169,219 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,439,862,000 after acquiring an additional 2,156,259 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in Exelon by 37.2% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 27,618,055 shares of the company's stock worth $1,039,545,000 after buying an additional 7,483,873 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Exelon by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 26,314,296 shares of the company's stock worth $988,080,000 after buying an additional 368,505 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Exelon by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 24,662,037 shares of the company's stock worth $928,277,000 after buying an additional 653,627 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.92% of the company's stock.

Exelon Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of EXC traded down $0.23 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $43.84. The company had a trading volume of 6,560,723 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,270,625. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $39.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $39.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.61, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.89, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.56. Exelon has a 1 year low of $34.01 and a 1 year high of $44.32.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. Exelon had a return on equity of 9.52% and a net margin of 10.68%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Exelon will post 2.64 EPS for the current year.

Exelon Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 24th will be given a $0.40 dividend. This is a boost from Exelon's previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 24th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.65%. Exelon's dividend payout ratio is presently 65.31%.

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.