Stanley Laman Group Ltd. Acquires New Position in Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC)

Stanley Laman Group Ltd. acquired a new stake in Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 8,558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $322,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Exelon by 109.0% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,884,282 shares of the company’s stock worth $238,608,000 after buying an additional 3,068,309 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Exelon by 3.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 60,169,219 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,439,862,000 after buying an additional 2,156,259 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of Exelon by 418.1% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,501,392 shares of the company’s stock worth $94,152,000 after buying an additional 2,018,604 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Exelon by 18.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,782,549 shares of the company’s stock worth $477,782,000 after buying an additional 1,858,502 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of Exelon by 212.2% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,903,482 shares of the company’s stock worth $71,647,000 after buying an additional 1,293,753 shares during the last quarter. 80.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Exelon

In other news, EVP Colette D. Honorable sold 1,463 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.57, for a total transaction of $59,353.91. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 2,271 shares in the company, valued at approximately $92,134.47. This represents a 39.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on EXC. Evercore ISI raised shares of Exelon from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $43.00 to $44.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Exelon from $44.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Exelon from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Exelon from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Guggenheim upgraded shares of Exelon from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Exelon currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.38.

Exelon Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:EXC opened at $42.97 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $43.18 billion, a PE ratio of 17.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.09. Exelon Co. has a 52 week low of $34.01 and a 52 week high of $43.45. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $38.62 and its 200-day moving average is $38.84.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. Exelon had a net margin of 10.60% and a return on equity of 9.47%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.60 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Exelon Co. will post 2.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Exelon Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 24th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This is a positive change from Exelon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 24th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.72%. Exelon’s payout ratio is presently 62.55%.

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.