abrdn plc Grows Stock Holdings in Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC)

abrdn plc grew its stake in Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) by 70.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 416,672 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 171,854 shares during the quarter. abrdn plc’s holdings in Exelon were worth $14,959,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Greenleaf Trust increased its stake in shares of Exelon by 10.3% during the fourth quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 22,986 shares of the company’s stock valued at $825,000 after buying an additional 2,142 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. increased its position in Exelon by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 129,527 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,650,000 after purchasing an additional 3,271 shares during the period. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt raised its holdings in shares of Exelon by 262.8% in the 4th quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 3,037 shares of the company’s stock valued at $109,000 after purchasing an additional 2,200 shares in the last quarter. Steph & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Exelon by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 19,831 shares of the company’s stock valued at $712,000 after purchasing an additional 397 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Maple Brown Abbott Ltd lifted its position in shares of Exelon by 38.0% in the 4th quarter. Maple Brown Abbott Ltd now owns 2,349,580 shares of the company’s stock worth $84,350,000 after purchasing an additional 646,710 shares during the period. 80.92% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of Exelon from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. StockNews.com raised Exelon from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Scotiabank cut their target price on Exelon from $39.00 to $37.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. 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 research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded shares of Exelon from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $47.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $38.92.

Exelon Price Performance

Shares of EXC opened at $37.77 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.73. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $36.63 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.11. Exelon Co. has a 1-year low of $33.35 and a 1-year high of $43.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.75 billion, a PE ratio of 16.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.54.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.02. Exelon had a return on equity of 9.40% and a net margin of 10.72%. The business had revenue of $5.37 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.87 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.43 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Exelon Co. will post 2.41 EPS for the current year.

Exelon Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 4th were given a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. This is a positive change from Exelon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.02%. Exelon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.