Norges Bank Takes Position in Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE:ED)

Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE:ED) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 4,480,828 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $399,824,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ED. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Consolidated Edison by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 42,455,662 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,788,319,000 after purchasing an additional 488,752 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Consolidated Edison by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 23,429,218 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,439,684,000 after buying an additional 399,034 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Consolidated Edison by 1.2% during 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 purchasing an additional 107,281 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of 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 worth $198,625,000 after acquiring an additional 77,323 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi grew its holdings in Consolidated Edison by 12.2% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 2,221,729 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $197,795,000 after buying an additional 242,243 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 66.29% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Consolidated Edison from $85.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Consolidated Edison from $110.00 to $113.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Consolidated Edison from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Evercore ISI lowered Consolidated Edison from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Mizuho boosted their target price on Consolidated Edison from $92.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $102.40.

Consolidated Edison Stock Up 0.9 %

NYSE ED opened at $108.81 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $99.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $98.51. Consolidated Edison, Inc. has a one year low of $87.28 and a one year high of $109.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.01. The company has a market capitalization of $37.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.77, a P/E/G ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.30.

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

Consolidated Edison Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were issued a $0.85 dividend. This is a boost from Consolidated Edison’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 19th. Consolidated Edison’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 64.89%.

Consolidated Edison Company Profile

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.