Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) Shares Bought by Rafferty Asset Management LLC

Rafferty Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) by 13.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 459,964 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 53,289 shares during the period. Rafferty Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Exelon were worth $17,313,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in 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 during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in 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 valued at $1,039,545,000 after purchasing an additional 7,483,873 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Exelon by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 26,314,296 shares of the company’s stock valued at $988,080,000 after purchasing an additional 368,505 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Exelon by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 24,662,037 shares of the company’s stock valued at $928,277,000 after acquiring an additional 653,627 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Exelon by 46.9% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 17,306,652 shares of the company’s stock valued at $651,422,000 after acquiring an additional 5,524,103 shares during the last quarter. 80.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on EXC shares. Guggenheim lifted their target price on shares of Exelon from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Exelon from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Exelon from $46.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Exelon from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Exelon from $42.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $47.30.

Exelon Price Performance

Shares of EXC stock opened at $43.43 on Friday. Exelon Co. has a 12-month low of $34.01 and a 12-month high of $48.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.61. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $45.22 and a 200-day moving average of $41.51.

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

Exelon Announces Dividend

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

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.