Principle Wealth Partners LLC Invests $1.64 Million in Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC)

Principle Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 45,655 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,639,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in Exelon by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 21,676,744 shares of the company’s stock valued at $819,164,000 after purchasing an additional 286,435 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in Exelon by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 12,644,485 shares of the company’s stock valued at $477,837,000 after purchasing an additional 78,316 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Exelon by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 11,665,829 shares of the company’s stock valued at $440,852,000 after purchasing an additional 395,908 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Exelon by 12.2% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,069,810 shares of the company’s stock valued at $380,538,000 after purchasing an additional 1,092,736 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Exelon by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,744,354 shares of the company’s stock valued at $217,079,000 after purchasing an additional 103,479 shares during the last quarter. 80.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on EXC. Mizuho raised shares of Exelon from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $36.00 to $39.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of Exelon from $38.00 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 19th. UBS Group cut shares of Exelon from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $47.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Exelon from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price target on shares of Exelon from $39.00 to $37.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 22nd. One research 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Exelon has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.92.

Exelon Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of EXC stock opened at $37.32 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.54. Exelon Co. has a twelve month low of $33.35 and a twelve month high of $43.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $36.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.07.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.87 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.43 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Exelon Co. will post 2.41 EPS for the current fiscal 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 paid a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.07%. This is an increase from Exelon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. Exelon’s payout ratio 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.