Exelon (EXC) Stock Declines Despite New York Commission's Preliminary Support of Price Hike

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Exelon Corp shares are down 0.83% to $35.63 on Thursday despite the New York Public Commission's unanimous approval of the nuclear energy provider's bid to continue its negotiating efforts to raise its energy prices in upstate New York.

The commission voted its approval of the energy company's request to begin talks with Iberdrola SA's Rochester Gas & Electric about raising energy prices in an effort to keep its R.E. Ginna nuclear plant in Ontario, New York operating.

The plant is one of four owned by Exelon that is in danger of being shutdown because of the losses the company incurs selling power on wholesale markets. The company, the largest operator of nuclear reactors in the U.S., wants to win approval to raise prices on customers of Rochester Gas & Electric to ensure the reliability of their energy services.

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TheStreet Ratings team rates EXELON CORP as a Buy with a ratings score of A-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate EXELON CORP (EXC) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, solid stock price performance, impressive record of earnings per share growth, compelling growth in net income and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows weak operating cash flow."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• EXC's revenue growth has slightly outpaced the industry average of 5.7%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 6.3%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share.
• Powered by its strong earnings growth of 33.72% and other important driving factors, this stock has surged by 29.05% over the past year, outperforming the rise in the S&P 500 Index during the same period. Regarding the stock's future course, although almost any stock can fall in a broad market decline, EXC should continue to move higher despite the fact that it has already enjoyed a very nice gain in the past year.
• EXELON CORP has improved earnings per share by 33.7% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past year. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, EXELON CORP increased its bottom line by earning $2.00 versus $1.40 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($2.40 versus $2.00).
• The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has significantly exceeded that of the S&P 500 and the Electric Utilities industry. The net income increased by 34.4% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, rising from $738.00 million to $992.00 million.
• The debt-to-equity ratio is somewhat low, currently at 0.94, and is less than that of the industry average, implying that there has been a relatively successful effort in the management of debt levels. Although the company had a strong debt-to-equity ratio, its quick ratio of 0.81 is somewhat weak and could be cause for future problems.
• You can view the full analysis from the report here: EXC Ratings Report