ProShare Advisors LLC Acquires 221,831 Shares of Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC)

ProShare Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) by 18.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,412,224 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 221,831 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in Exelon were worth $53,156,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of EXC. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Exelon by 2.5% in 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 during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Exelon by 37.2% during the fourth 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 last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Exelon by 1.4% during the fourth 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 last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Exelon by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 24,662,037 shares of the company’s stock worth $928,277,000 after purchasing an additional 653,627 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Exelon by 46.9% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 17,306,652 shares of the company’s stock worth $651,422,000 after purchasing an additional 5,524,103 shares during the period. 80.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Exelon Stock Up 2.8%

Shares of Exelon stock opened at $43.43 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $45.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $41.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The company has a market capitalization of $43.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.73, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.43. Exelon Co. has a 1-year low of $34.01 and a 1-year high of $48.11.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $0.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.06. Exelon had a return on equity of 9.52% and a net margin of 10.68%. The business had revenue of $6.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.68 earnings per share. Exelon’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Exelon Co. will post 2.64 EPS for the current year.

Exelon Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 13th. Investors of record on Monday, May 12th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 12th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.68%. Exelon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 59.48%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on EXC. Scotiabank boosted their price target on Exelon from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Guggenheim boosted their price target on Exelon from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Exelon from $46.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley upped 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. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Exelon from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $47.30.

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.