Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Purchases New Position in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. purchased a new stake in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 82,803 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,649,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in Xcel Energy in the second quarter valued at approximately $6,096,000. Evolve Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Xcel Energy during the second quarter worth $384,000. Madison Wealth Partners Inc bought a new position in shares of Xcel Energy during the second quarter worth $230,000. Westpac Banking Corp acquired a new position in shares of Xcel Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,566,000. Finally, Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. acquired a new position in shares of Xcel Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at $469,000. Institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:XEL opened at $76.30 on Monday. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 12 month low of $71.29 and a 12 month high of $84.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $79.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $79.73. The firm has a market cap of $47.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.90, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.39.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $3.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.54 billion. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 15.28% and a return on equity of 10.65%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.59 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 20th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be issued a $0.5925 dividend. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 15th. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is 64.93%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on XEL shares. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $95.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group set a $101.00 target price on Xcel Energy in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Barclays increased their price target on Xcel Energy from $87.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $96.00 price target on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Xcel Energy from $92.00 to $89.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $92.41.

Xcel Energy Company 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.