Russell Investments Group Ltd. Acquires 363,507 Shares of Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its holdings in Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) by 19.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,185,993 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 363,507 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned about 0.22% of Exelon worth $78,472,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its position in shares of Exelon by 507.9% during the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 3,161,879 shares of the company’s stock worth $119,505,000 after purchasing an additional 2,641,756 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Exelon by 501.1% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 2,290,847 shares of the company’s stock worth $86,571,000 after purchasing an additional 1,909,731 shares in the last quarter. Maple Brown Abbott Ltd bought a new position in shares of Exelon during the third quarter worth $64,377,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Exelon by 12.2% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,069,810 shares of the company’s stock worth $380,538,000 after purchasing an additional 1,092,736 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. boosted its position in shares of Exelon by 112.4% during the third quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 1,910,912 shares of the company’s stock worth $72,213,000 after purchasing an additional 1,011,224 shares in the last quarter. 80.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on EXC shares. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Exelon from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. StockNews.com raised shares of Exelon from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 25th. UBS Group downgraded shares of Exelon from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $47.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Exelon from $41.00 to $39.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, Mizuho raised shares of Exelon from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $36.00 to $39.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $38.92.

Exelon Trading Down 0.9 %

NASDAQ EXC traded down $0.34 on Friday, hitting $37.32. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,439,450 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,657,864. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56. Exelon Co. has a 1-year low of $33.35 and a 1-year high of $43.53. The company’s 50-day moving average is $36.74 and its 200 day moving average is $37.09. The firm has a market cap of $37.30 billion, a PE ratio of 16.02, a PEG ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.54.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 10.72% and a return on equity of 9.40%. The firm had revenue of $5.37 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.87 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.43 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Exelon Co. will post 2.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Exelon Increases Dividend

The business 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 positive change from Exelon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 1st. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.07%. Exelon’s payout ratio is currently 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.