Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL Shares Bought by Energy Income Partners LLC

Energy Income Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 66.4% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,000,644 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 399,383 shares during the period. Xcel Energy makes up approximately 1.3% of Energy Income Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 28th biggest holding. Energy Income Partners LLC’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $79,491,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Barclays PLC increased its stake in Xcel Energy by 63.6% during the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 9,979,397 shares of the company’s stock worth $737,078,000 after acquiring an additional 3,881,011 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 16.9% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 24,572,438 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,814,920,000 after purchasing an additional 3,546,423 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 37.1% in the 1st quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 8,871,863 shares of the company’s stock valued at $704,780,000 after purchasing an additional 2,399,089 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 9.0% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 26,262,079 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,788,448,000 after purchasing an additional 2,157,602 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners grew its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 4,530.7% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,024,541 shares of the company’s stock worth $149,538,000 after purchasing an additional 1,980,821 shares during the period. 78.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

XEL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group set a $101.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $91.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $94.00 to $91.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $92.65.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

XEL stock opened at $80.71 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $50.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.77. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 1 year low of $69.16 and a 1 year high of $84.23. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $79.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $79.34.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.91. The firm had revenue of $4.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.21 billion. Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 10.37% and a net margin of 14.14%.Xcel Energy’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.84 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 20th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were given a dividend of $0.5925 per share. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is presently 68.30%.

Xcel Energy Profile

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ: XEL) is a Minneapolis-based, publicly traded utility holding company that develops, owns and operates regulated electricity and natural gas delivery systems. The company’s core activities include generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, the delivery of natural gas to customers, and related customer service operations. Xcel provides a mix of utility services to residential, commercial and industrial customers and participates in wholesale energy markets where appropriate.

Its generation portfolio combines nuclear, natural gas, coal and a growing share of renewable resources such as wind and solar.