Investors Purchase High Volume of Exelon Call Options (NASDAQ:EXC)

Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC - Get Free Report) saw unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Traders bought 8,339 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 156% compared to the average volume of 3,252 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on EXC. Barclays increased their price objective on Exelon from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. StockNews.com raised shares of Exelon from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, March 25th. TheStreet lowered shares of Exelon from a "b-" rating to a "c+" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of Exelon from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Exelon from $41.00 to $39.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $39.09.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Exelon

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Exelon in the 1st quarter worth about $270,000. Cibc World Market Inc. boosted its stake in Exelon by 21.4% in the first quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 19,872 shares of the company's stock worth $947,000 after buying an additional 3,509 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Exelon by 0.6% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,063,174 shares of the company's stock valued at $98,262,000 after acquiring an additional 12,105 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Exelon by 8.8% during the first quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 4,639 shares of the company's stock worth $219,000 after acquiring an additional 376 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Exelon by 77.9% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 380,426 shares of the company's stock worth $18,117,000 after acquiring an additional 166,614 shares during the last quarter. 80.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Exelon Price Performance

NASDAQ:EXC traded up $0.87 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $37.55. The stock had a trading volume of 6,125,049 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,695,795. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $36.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.73. Exelon has a one year low of $33.35 and a one year high of $43.71.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC - Get Free Report) last posted 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. The company had revenue of $5.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.87 billion. Exelon had a return on equity of 9.40% and a net margin of 10.72%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.43 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Exelon will post 2.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Exelon Increases Dividend

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