Bailard Inc. Raises Stock Position in Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC)

Bailard Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) by 93.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 19,749 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,515 shares during the period. Bailard Inc.’s holdings in Exelon were worth $709,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Addison Advisors LLC increased its stake in Exelon by 50.3% during the third quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 825 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 276 shares during the period. MCF Advisors LLC increased its stake in Exelon by 10.5% during the third quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 2,936 shares of the company’s stock worth $111,000 after purchasing an additional 278 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its stake in Exelon by 4.5% during the third quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 7,005 shares of the company’s stock worth $265,000 after purchasing an additional 303 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in Exelon by 4.6% during the third quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 7,088 shares of the company’s stock worth $268,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the period. Finally, Abundance Wealth Counselors increased its stake in shares of Exelon by 2.2% during the third quarter. Abundance Wealth Counselors now owns 15,855 shares of the company’s stock worth $599,000 after buying an additional 339 shares during the period. 80.92% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on EXC shares. UBS Group lowered shares of Exelon from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $47.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut 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 note on Thursday, February 22nd. Scotiabank lowered their price target on Exelon from $39.00 to $37.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Bank of America lowered their price target on Exelon from $38.00 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 19th. Finally, Mizuho raised Exelon from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $36.00 to $39.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Exelon has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.92.

Exelon Price Performance

EXC stock opened at $37.32 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $36.74 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.10. Exelon Co. has a twelve month low of $33.35 and a twelve month high of $43.53. The company has a market capitalization of $37.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.02, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.54.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.02. Exelon had a return on equity of 9.40% and a net margin of 10.72%. The firm had revenue of $5.37 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.87 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.43 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 4th were given a $0.38 dividend. This is a boost from Exelon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.07%. Exelon’s dividend payout ratio is presently 65.24%.

Exelon Profile

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.