Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Sells 1,244,952 Shares of Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC)

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA trimmed its stake in shares of Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) by 6.9% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 16,786,781 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,244,952 shares during the quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA’s holdings in Exelon were worth $680,704,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Exelon during the 1st quarter valued at $681,000. Covestor Ltd increased its stake in Exelon by 276.7% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,921 shares of the company’s stock worth $72,000 after acquiring an additional 1,411 shares during the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Exelon by 18.7% in the 1st quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 32,634 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,226,000 after acquiring an additional 5,133 shares in the last quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Exelon during the 1st quarter valued at about $26,000. Finally, CreativeOne Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Exelon during the first quarter worth about $247,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.92% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on EXC shares. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Exelon from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Exelon from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Scotiabank increased their target price on Exelon from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Barclays lifted their price target on Exelon from $41.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Exelon in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $46.00 price objective on the stock. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $41.33.

Exelon Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of Exelon stock opened at $39.30 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $39.67 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.83. Exelon Co. has a 52-week low of $33.35 and a 52-week high of $41.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.54.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $6.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.85 billion. Exelon had a net margin of 10.60% and a return on equity of 9.47%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.67 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Exelon Co. will post 2.45 EPS for the current year.

Exelon Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th will be given a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.87%. Exelon’s dividend payout ratio is currently 62.55%.

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.