Parallel Advisors LLC Buys 844 Shares of Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC)

Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) by 11.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 8,356 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 844 shares during the quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC’s holdings in Exelon were worth $315,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in EXC. 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 purchasing an additional 3,068,309 shares during the period. Amundi grew its stake in Exelon by 53.8% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 6,174,458 shares of the company’s stock worth $235,390,000 after purchasing an additional 2,160,201 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 2,156,259 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 2,018,604 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC grew its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 1,858,502 shares during the period. 80.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Exelon in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on Exelon from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Guggenheim raised Exelon from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays raised their price objective on Exelon from $42.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on Exelon from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $45.13.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Colette D. Honorable sold 1,463 shares of Exelon stock in a transaction 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 2,271 shares in the company, valued at approximately $92,134.47. This trade represents a 39.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Exelon Stock Down 1.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:EXC opened at $43.80 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $44.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.88, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.61. Exelon Co. has a 12-month low of $34.01 and a 12-month high of $45.20. The business’s 50 day moving average is $41.97 and its 200 day moving average is $39.96.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC) last announced 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 return on equity of 9.52% and a net margin of 10.68%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.60 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Exelon Co. will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Exelon Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 24th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This is a boost from Exelon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 24th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.65%. 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.