First National Bank of Omaha Sells 8,584 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

First National Bank of Omaha lessened its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 7.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 103,281 shares of the company’s stock after selling 8,584 shares during the quarter. First National Bank of Omaha’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $7,628,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in XEL. Brighton Jones LLC bought a new position in Xcel Energy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $240,000. Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in Xcel Energy by 30.7% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 13,810 shares of the company’s stock valued at $978,000 after acquiring an additional 3,242 shares in the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP raised its position in Xcel Energy by 40.7% during the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 48,515 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,434,000 after acquiring an additional 14,029 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its position in Xcel Energy by 4.8% during the second quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 10,193 shares of the company’s stock valued at $694,000 after acquiring an additional 469 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cary Street Partners Financial LLC raised its position in Xcel Energy by 16.0% during the second quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC now owns 2,620 shares of the company’s stock valued at $178,000 after acquiring an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on XEL. Barclays lowered their price target on Xcel Energy from $91.00 to $87.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Xcel Energy from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Friday, March 20th. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $96.00 price target on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Monday, May 4th. UBS Group increased their price target on Xcel Energy from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Monday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $90.63.

Xcel Energy Stock Up 1.2%

Shares of XEL stock opened at $79.22 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $49.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.39. Xcel Energy Inc. has a one year low of $65.21 and a one year high of $84.23. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $79.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $78.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.68.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last issued its 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.21 billion. Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 10.37% and a net margin of 14.14%.Xcel Energy’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.84 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Xcel Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 20th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be given a $0.5925 dividend. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.30%.

About Xcel Energy

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.