Vest Financial LLC Buys 21,949 Shares of Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE:ED)

Vest Financial LLC grew its stake in Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE:ED) by 4.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 530,470 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 21,949 shares during the quarter. Vest Financial LLC’s holdings in Consolidated Edison were worth $47,334,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ED. State Street Corp increased its position in Consolidated Edison by 1.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 23,429,218 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,439,684,000 after acquiring an additional 399,034 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Consolidated Edison by 1.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,853,788 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $919,041,000 after buying an additional 107,281 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Consolidated Edison by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,148,666 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $223,741,000 after acquiring an additional 28,254 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Consolidated Edison by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,145,128 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $223,373,000 after acquiring an additional 82,985 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Consolidated Edison by 82.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,268,424 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $132,081,000 after purchasing an additional 572,530 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Consolidated Edison from $92.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Citigroup upgraded shares of Consolidated Edison from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $103.00 to $116.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Consolidated Edison from $99.00 to $92.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Consolidated Edison from a “sector underperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $90.00 to $100.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Consolidated Edison from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Consolidated Edison presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $100.00.

Consolidated Edison Price Performance

Consolidated Edison stock opened at $96.05 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $33.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.39. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $92.05 and its 200 day moving average is $98.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 0.93. Consolidated Edison, Inc. has a one year low of $85.85 and a one year high of $107.75.

Consolidated Edison (NYSE:ED) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The utilities provider reported $1.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.56 by $0.12. Consolidated Edison had a net margin of 12.27% and a return on equity of 8.70%. The firm had revenue of $4.09 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.02 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Consolidated Edison, Inc. will post 5.35 EPS for the current year.

Consolidated Edison Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.85 per share. This is an increase from Consolidated Edison’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 19th. Consolidated Edison’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.52%.

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.