Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) Shares Sold by Barclays PLC

Barclays PLC cut its holdings in Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) by 8.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,220,464 shares of the company’s stock after selling 314,272 shares during the period. Barclays PLC’s holdings in Exelon were worth $121,216,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Exelon in the 4th quarter valued at about $479,597,000. FMR LLC lifted its position in Exelon by 46.9% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 17,306,652 shares of the company’s stock valued at $651,422,000 after buying an additional 5,524,103 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in 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 period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Exelon by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 127,335,351 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,792,903,000 after acquiring an additional 3,064,673 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Exelon by 25.8% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 13,718,745 shares of the company’s stock valued at $516,374,000 after acquiring an additional 2,817,174 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.92% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on EXC shares. Scotiabank increased their price target on Exelon from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Exelon in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and issued a $48.00 price target (up previously from $46.00) on shares of Exelon in a report on Tuesday. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Exelon from $42.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Exelon from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.63.

Exelon Stock Performance

Shares of Exelon stock opened at $46.74 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.61, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.87. Exelon Co. has a 1 year low of $34.01 and a 1 year high of $48.11. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $44.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $40.68. The firm has a market cap of $47.19 billion, a PE ratio of 19.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.39.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.05. Exelon had a return on equity of 9.52% and a net margin of 10.68%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Exelon Co. will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Exelon Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 24th were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This is a positive change from Exelon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 24th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.42%. Exelon’s payout ratio is presently 65.31%.

Exelon Company 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.