Maple Brown Abbott Ltd Buys 646,710 Shares of Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC)

Maple Brown Abbott Ltd raised its stake in Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC - Free Report) by 38.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,349,580 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 646,710 shares during the period. Exelon accounts for approximately 8.7% of Maple Brown Abbott Ltd's investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Maple Brown Abbott Ltd owned about 0.24% of Exelon worth $84,350,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EXC. State Street Corp grew its stake 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 worth $2,597,969,000 after acquiring an additional 3,271,744 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Exelon by 1.1% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 32,894,774 shares of the company's stock worth $1,232,236,000 after acquiring an additional 343,201 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Exelon by 1.4% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 18,515,401 shares of the company's stock worth $773,655,000 after acquiring an additional 263,797 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of Exelon by 0.6% during the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 12,644,485 shares of the company's stock worth $477,837,000 after acquiring an additional 78,316 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Exelon by 3.5% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 11,665,829 shares of the company's stock worth $440,852,000 after acquiring an additional 395,908 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.92% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on EXC shares. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Exelon from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. TheStreet downgraded Exelon from a "b-" rating to a "c+" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Exelon from $41.00 to $39.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Barclays boosted their price target on Exelon from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded Exelon from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their price target for the company from $47.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $39.09.

Exelon Price Performance

Shares of EXC traded up $0.67 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $36.42. 4,716,892 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,734,648. 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 12-month low of $33.35 and a 12-month high of $43.71. The company has a market cap of $36.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.54. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $36.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $37.11.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results 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 analysts' expectations 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 period in the prior year, the business earned $0.43 EPS. Research analysts expect that Exelon Co. will post 2.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Exelon Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 4th were issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 1st. This is a boost from Exelon's previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.17%. Exelon's dividend payout ratio is currently 65.24%.

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.