California Public Employees Retirement System Sells 101,658 Shares of Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC)

California Public Employees Retirement System trimmed its holdings in shares of Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,039,023 shares of the company’s stock after selling 101,658 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned about 0.61% of Exelon worth $216,801,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in Exelon by 85.7% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 192,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,895,000 after acquiring an additional 88,614 shares during the period. Duality Advisers LP increased its position in Exelon by 225.3% during the fourth quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 122,009 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,380,000 after acquiring an additional 84,498 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates increased its position in Exelon by 24.4% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 464,064 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,660,000 after acquiring an additional 91,088 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Exelon by 12.2% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,069,810 shares of the company’s stock worth $380,538,000 after acquiring an additional 1,092,736 shares during the period. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in Exelon during the fourth quarter worth about $5,001,000. 80.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Exelon Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:EXC traded up $0.12 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $37.79. The company had a trading volume of 748,600 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,597,768. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $36.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.11. The company has a market capitalization of $37.77 billion, a PE ratio of 16.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 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 Co. has a one year low of $33.35 and a one year high of $43.71.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.02. Exelon had a net margin of 10.72% and a return on equity of 9.40%. The company had revenue of $5.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.87 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.43 EPS. Exelon’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Exelon Co. will post 2.41 EPS for the current year.

Exelon Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 4th were given a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.02%. This is an increase from Exelon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Exelon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on EXC. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Exelon from $38.00 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 19th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of Exelon from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of Exelon from $39.00 to $37.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Exelon from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded shares of Exelon from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $47.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Exelon currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.92.

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.