SageView Advisory Group LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC)

SageView Advisory Group LLC raised its holdings in Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) by 25.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 12,375 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 2,479 shares during the period. SageView Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Exelon were worth $466,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of EXC. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Exelon in the 4th quarter valued at $479,597,000. FMR LLC raised its stake in Exelon by 46.9% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 17,306,652 shares of the company’s stock valued at $651,422,000 after purchasing an additional 5,524,103 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Exelon by 109.0% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,884,282 shares of the company’s stock worth $238,608,000 after purchasing an additional 3,068,309 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings 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 worth $4,792,903,000 after buying an additional 3,064,673 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Exelon by 25.8% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 13,718,745 shares of the company’s stock worth $516,374,000 after buying an additional 2,817,174 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.92% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on EXC. UBS Group boosted their target price on Exelon from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Evercore ISI upgraded Exelon from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $43.00 to $44.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Exelon from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Exelon from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Exelon from $42.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $45.13.

Insider Buying and Selling at Exelon

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

Exelon Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of EXC opened at $46.86 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.78. Exelon Co. has a 1-year low of $34.01 and a 1-year high of $48.11. The stock has a market cap of $47.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.39. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $40.64.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC) last issued 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 prior year, the company earned $0.60 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Exelon Co. will post 2.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Exelon Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 24th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 24th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.41%. This is a positive change from Exelon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. Exelon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.