SlateStone Wealth LLC Grows Holdings in Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE:ED)

SlateStone Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE:ED) by 5.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 17,389 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 935 shares during the period. SlateStone Wealth LLC’s holdings in Consolidated Edison were worth $1,552,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp increased its stake in Consolidated Edison by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 23,429,218 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,439,684,000 after buying an additional 399,034 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Consolidated Edison by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,853,788 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $919,041,000 after buying an additional 107,281 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Consolidated Edison by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,225,989 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $198,625,000 after buying an additional 77,323 shares during the period. Amundi increased its stake in Consolidated Edison by 12.2% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 2,221,729 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $197,795,000 after buying an additional 242,243 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Consolidated Edison by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,145,128 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $223,373,000 after purchasing an additional 82,985 shares during the period. 66.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ED has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Consolidated Edison from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Consolidated Edison from $92.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Consolidated Edison from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Consolidated Edison from $92.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Consolidated Edison from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $101.50.

Consolidated Edison Price Performance

Consolidated Edison stock opened at $106.60 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $36.97 billion, a PE ratio of 20.34, a P/E/G ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.30. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $95.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $98.17. Consolidated Edison, Inc. has a 52 week low of $87.16 and a 52 week high of $107.97.

Consolidated Edison (NYSE:ED) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $3.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.63 billion. Consolidated Edison had a net margin of 11.93% and a return on equity of 8.62%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Consolidated Edison, Inc. will post 5.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Consolidated Edison Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were issued a dividend of $0.85 per share. This is a positive change from Consolidated Edison’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 19th. Consolidated Edison’s dividend payout ratio is presently 64.89%.

About Consolidated Edison

Consolidated Edison, Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the regulated electric, gas, and steam delivery businesses in the United States. It offers electric services to approximately 3.7 million customers in New York City and Westchester County; gas to approximately 1.1 million customers in Manhattan, the Bronx, parts of Queens, and Westchester County; and steam to approximately 1,530 customers in parts of Manhattan.