VSM Wealth Advisory LLC Invests $277,000 in Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC)

VSM Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 7,355 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $277,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Exelon by 109.0% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,884,282 shares of the company’s stock valued at $238,608,000 after purchasing an additional 3,068,309 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its stake in Exelon by 53.8% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 6,174,458 shares of the company’s stock valued at $235,390,000 after purchasing an additional 2,160,201 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Exelon by 3.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 60,169,219 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,439,862,000 after purchasing an additional 2,156,259 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in shares of Exelon by 418.1% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,501,392 shares of the company’s stock valued at $94,152,000 after acquiring an additional 2,018,604 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Exelon by 18.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,782,549 shares of the company’s stock valued at $477,782,000 after acquiring an additional 1,858,502 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.92% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

EXC has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Exelon from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Guggenheim raised shares of Exelon from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Exelon from $42.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Exelon from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $43.00 to $44.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Exelon from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.13.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Exelon news, EVP Colette D. Honorable sold 1,463 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.57, for a total transaction of $59,353.91. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 2,271 shares in the company, valued at $92,134.47. This represents a 39.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Exelon Trading Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ EXC opened at $44.42 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $41.59 and its 200-day moving average price is $39.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.61. The stock has a market cap of $44.65 billion, a PE ratio of 18.13, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.51. Exelon Co. has a 12 month low of $34.01 and a 12 month high of $45.20.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.05. Exelon had a net margin of 10.68% and a return on equity of 9.52%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Exelon Co. will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Exelon Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 24th were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.60%. This is a boost from Exelon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 24th. Exelon’s dividend payout ratio is presently 65.31%.

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.