AQR Capital Management LLC Boosts Stake in Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC)

AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) by 147.7% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 192,375 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 114,697 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Exelon were worth $6,641,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Exelon by 112.4% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 31,527,396 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,184,483,000 after buying an additional 16,686,526 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Exelon by 16.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 105,310,761 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,956,525,000 after buying an additional 14,749,899 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Exelon by 666.2% in the 2nd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 3,583,477 shares of the company’s stock worth $124,024,000 after buying an additional 3,115,763 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Exelon in the 1st quarter worth approximately $96,859,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Exelon by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 93,146,101 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,343,945,000 after buying an additional 2,352,547 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.92% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on EXC shares. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Exelon in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $46.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays upped their price objective on Exelon from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Exelon from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Exelon from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Exelon from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $41.08.

Exelon Price Performance

NASDAQ EXC opened at $40.78 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $40.80 billion, a PE ratio of 17.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.03. The business’s fifty day moving average is $38.61 and its 200 day moving average is $37.28. Exelon Co. has a fifty-two week low of $33.35 and a fifty-two week high of $41.48.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $5.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.98 billion. Exelon had a return on equity of 9.40% and a net margin of 10.65%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.41 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Exelon Co. will post 2.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Exelon Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Investors of record on Monday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 12th. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.73%. Exelon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.52%.

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.