Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV Acquires 1,653 Shares of Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC)

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its stake in shares of Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 206,043 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,653 shares during the quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV’s holdings in Exelon were worth $7,123,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in EXC. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Exelon by 16.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 105,310,761 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,956,525,000 after acquiring an additional 14,749,899 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Exelon by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 93,146,101 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,343,945,000 after purchasing an additional 2,352,547 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Exelon by 112.4% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 31,527,396 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,184,483,000 after purchasing an additional 16,686,526 shares in the last quarter. Putnam Investments LLC grew its stake in Exelon by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 9,711,396 shares of the company’s stock worth $348,639,000 after buying an additional 274,967 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its position in Exelon by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 4,887,035 shares of the company’s stock valued at $183,606,000 after buying an additional 113,428 shares in the last quarter. 80.92% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on EXC shares. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Exelon in a report on Thursday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $46.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Exelon from $39.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Exelon from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Exelon from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on Exelon from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Eleven research 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, Exelon has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $40.83.

Exelon Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of EXC opened at $40.27 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $37.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66. The company has a market capitalization of $40.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.36, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.53. Exelon Co. has a 52 week low of $33.35 and a 52 week high of $41.48.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.07. Exelon had a net margin of 10.65% and a return on equity of 9.40%. The firm had revenue of $5.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.98 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.41 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Exelon Co. will post 2.44 EPS for the current year.

Exelon Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Investors of record on Monday, August 12th were paid a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.77%. Exelon’s dividend payout ratio is presently 65.52%.

Exelon 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.