Avior Wealth Management LLC Has $298,000 Holdings in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

Avior Wealth Management LLC cut its holdings in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 9.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,809 shares of the company’s stock after selling 494 shares during the quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $298,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Xcel Energy by 15.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,062,856 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,665,677,000 after purchasing an additional 8,644,054 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in Xcel Energy by 16.0% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 18,521,863 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,059,821,000 after purchasing an additional 2,559,321 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Xcel Energy by 1.3% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,251,587 shares of the company’s stock valued at $825,364,000 after purchasing an additional 162,592 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Xcel Energy during the fourth quarter worth about $576,873,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 8.4% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 7,504,622 shares of the company’s stock worth $429,414,000 after acquiring an additional 583,318 shares during the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on XEL shares. Wolfe Research upgraded Xcel Energy from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, March 11th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Xcel Energy from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on Xcel Energy from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. TheStreet downgraded Xcel Energy from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Xcel Energy from $68.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Xcel Energy presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $62.83.

Xcel Energy Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of Xcel Energy stock opened at $54.72 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.72. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52 week low of $46.79 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $54.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $58.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.40 billion, a PE ratio of 17.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.36.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.85 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $3.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.01 billion. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 12.47% and a return on equity of 10.78%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.69 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, April 20th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th will be given a dividend of $0.548 per share. This is a boost from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $2.19 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.01%. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is presently 68.22%.

Xcel Energy Profile

Xcel Energy Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, purchasing, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity. It operates through Regulated Electric Utility, Regulated Natural Gas Utility, and All Other segments. The company generates electricity through wind, nuclear, hydroelectric, biomass, and solar energy sources, as well as coal, natural gas, oil, wood, and refuse-derived fuels.