Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Trims Stock Position in Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. trimmed its stake in Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) by 5.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 169,344 shares of the company’s stock after selling 10,510 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Exelon were worth $6,080,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Exelon in the fourth quarter worth about $413,260,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Exelon by 805.4% in the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 7,526,759 shares of the company’s stock worth $325,380,000 after acquiring an additional 6,695,474 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Exelon in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $264,477,000. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Exelon by 5.6% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 62,018,881 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,597,969,000 after purchasing an additional 3,271,744 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its position in shares of Exelon by 507.9% during the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 3,161,879 shares of the company’s stock valued at $119,505,000 after purchasing an additional 2,641,756 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.92% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. UBS Group lowered Exelon from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $47.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of Exelon from $38.00 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 19th. StockNews.com raised shares of Exelon from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Exelon from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn cut Exelon from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.09.

Exelon Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EXC opened at $37.55 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $36.43 and a 200 day moving average of $37.11. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56. Exelon Co. has a twelve month low of $33.35 and a twelve month high of $43.71. The firm has a market cap of $37.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.12, a PEG ratio of 2.68 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, topping 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 firm had revenue of $5.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.87 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.43 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Exelon Co. will post 2.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Exelon Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 4th were paid a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 dividend yield of 4.05%. Exelon’s payout ratio 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.