Maple Brown Abbott Ltd Boosts Stake in Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC)

Maple Brown Abbott Ltd raised its position in Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) by 38.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,349,580 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 646,710 shares during the quarter. Exelon accounts for 8.7% of Maple Brown Abbott Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 7th largest position. Maple Brown Abbott Ltd’s holdings in Exelon were worth $84,350,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Exelon in the 4th quarter worth approximately $413,260,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Exelon by 805.4% during the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 7,526,759 shares of the company’s stock worth $325,380,000 after acquiring an additional 6,695,474 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Exelon in the fourth quarter worth $264,477,000. State Street Corp increased its stake in Exelon by 5.6% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 62,018,881 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,597,969,000 after acquiring an additional 3,271,744 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its position in Exelon by 507.9% during the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 3,161,879 shares of the company’s stock valued at $119,505,000 after purchasing an additional 2,641,756 shares in the last quarter. 80.92% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Exelon from $45.00 to $38.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 19th. UBS Group cut shares of Exelon from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $47.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Exelon from $38.00 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 19th. Mizuho raised shares of Exelon from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $36.00 to $39.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Exelon from $41.00 to $39.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.09.

Exelon Trading Up 1.9 %

EXC traded up $0.69 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $36.44. 2,653,115 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,705,343. The firm has a market capitalization of $36.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.54. Exelon Co. has a 12-month low of $33.35 and a 12-month high of $43.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.73. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $36.25 and a 200 day moving average of $37.11.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $5.37 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.87 billion. Exelon had a net margin of 10.72% and a return on equity of 9.40%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.43 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Exelon Co. will post 2.41 EPS for the current year.

Exelon Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 4th were given a $0.38 dividend. This is a positive change from Exelon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.17%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. Exelon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 65.24%.

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.