Exelon Co. (EXC) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.40 on March 14th

Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 12th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, February 24th will be given a dividend of 0.40 per share on Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.72%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 24th. This is an increase from Exelon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38.

Exelon has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 0.2% annually over the last three years. Exelon has a payout ratio of 57.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Exelon to earn $2.63 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 60.8%.

Exelon Stock Performance

NASDAQ:EXC opened at $42.97 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66. Exelon has a 12-month low of $34.01 and a 12-month high of $43.45. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $38.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $38.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.56.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. Exelon had a return on equity of 9.47% and a net margin of 10.60%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Exelon will post 2.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Exelon news, EVP Colette D. Honorable sold 1,463 shares of Exelon stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.57, for a total transaction of $59,353.91. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 2,271 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $92,134.47. The trade was a 39.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EXC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Guggenheim upgraded Exelon from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays cut their price target on Exelon from $44.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Evercore ISI raised Exelon from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $43.00 to $44.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Scotiabank raised their price objective on Exelon from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Exelon from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Exelon has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $43.38.

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.