Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 10,182 Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 10,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $630,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Xcel Energy by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 298,074 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,448,000 after purchasing an additional 7,679 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 47.7% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 115,016 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,121,000 after acquiring an additional 37,131 shares during the period. Seven Eight Capital LP lifted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 930.5% in the 3rd quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP now owns 45,918 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,627,000 after acquiring an additional 41,462 shares during the period. First Bank & Trust boosted its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 66.8% in the fourth quarter. First Bank & Trust now owns 70,404 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,359,000 after acquiring an additional 28,187 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 15.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,062,856 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,665,677,000 after acquiring an additional 8,644,054 shares during the period. 78.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

XEL has been the subject of several research reports. StockNews.com cut Xcel Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of 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. Barclays upgraded shares of Xcel Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $61.00 to $54.00 in a report on Monday, March 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $68.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, TheStreet cut Xcel Energy from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.83.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:XEL opened at $54.96 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $54.08 and its two-hundred day moving average is $58.15. The company has a market cap of $30.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.36. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 12-month low of $46.79 and a 12-month high of $71.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41.

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

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, April 20th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.548 per share. This is a boost from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.19 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.99%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.