Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Has $4.39 Million Stake in Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC)

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC decreased its stake in shares of Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) by 7.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 122,185 shares of the company’s stock after selling 9,964 shares during the period. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC’s holdings in Exelon were worth $4,386,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Exelon in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $270,000. Cibc World Market Inc. grew its holdings in Exelon by 21.4% in the 1st quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 19,872 shares of the company’s stock valued at $947,000 after buying an additional 3,509 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Exelon by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,063,174 shares of the company’s stock valued at $98,262,000 after buying an additional 12,105 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. grew its holdings in Exelon by 8.8% in the 1st quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 4,639 shares of the company’s stock valued at $219,000 after buying an additional 376 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. grew its holdings in Exelon by 77.9% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 380,426 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,117,000 after buying an additional 166,614 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.92% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on EXC shares. Barclays lifted their price objective on Exelon from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. TheStreet lowered Exelon from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on Exelon from $38.00 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 19th. StockNews.com raised Exelon from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Exelon from $41.00 to $39.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Exelon currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.09.

Exelon Trading Up 2.4 %

Shares of EXC opened at $37.55 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $36.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $37.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.81. Exelon Co. has a 52-week low of $33.35 and a 52-week high of $43.71. The company has a market cap of $37.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.12, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.54.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm had revenue of $5.37 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.87 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.43 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Exelon Co. will post 2.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Exelon Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 4th were given a $0.38 dividend. This is an increase from Exelon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.05%. Exelon’s payout ratio is presently 65.24%.

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.