Rafferty Asset Management LLC Boosts Stake in Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC)

Rafferty Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) by 13.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 459,964 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 53,289 shares during the period. Rafferty Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Exelon were worth $17,313,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Exelon by 2.5% during the 4th 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. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 7,483,873 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 368,505 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 653,627 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC grew its holdings in Exelon by 46.9% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 17,306,652 shares of the company’s stock valued at $651,422,000 after buying an additional 5,524,103 shares during the last quarter. 80.92% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Exelon from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Exelon from $46.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Exelon from $42.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. KeyCorp cut Exelon from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $39.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on Exelon from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $47.30.

Exelon Stock Up 2.8%

Shares of NASDAQ EXC opened at $43.43 on Friday. Exelon Co. has a 1 year low of $34.01 and a 1 year high of $48.11. The firm has a market cap of $43.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.73, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.43. 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 stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $45.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.51.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $0.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $6.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.30 billion. Exelon had a return on equity of 9.52% and a net margin of 10.68%. Exelon’s quarterly revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.68 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Exelon Co. will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Exelon Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 13th. Investors of record on Monday, May 12th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.68%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 12th. Exelon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 59.48%.

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.