Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL Shares Bought by Hsbc Holdings PLC

Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 4.1% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,343,595 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 53,440 shares during the quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $106,638,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Xcel Energy in the fourth quarter valued at about $240,000. Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in Xcel Energy by 30.7% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 13,810 shares of the company’s stock worth $978,000 after purchasing an additional 3,242 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP raised its stake in Xcel Energy by 40.7% during the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 48,515 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,434,000 after purchasing an additional 14,029 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in Xcel Energy by 4.8% in the 2nd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 10,193 shares of the company’s stock valued at $694,000 after purchasing an additional 469 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cary Street Partners Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Xcel Energy by 16.0% in the 2nd quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC now owns 2,620 shares of the company’s stock valued at $178,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares during the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on XEL. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Monday, June 8th. New Street Research set a $91.00 price objective on Xcel Energy in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Morgan Stanley set a $89.00 price objective on Xcel Energy in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and set a $98.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on Xcel Energy from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $92.76.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

Shares of XEL opened at $78.77 on Monday. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 1-year low of $69.16 and a 1-year high of $84.23. The stock has a market cap of $49.17 billion, a PE ratio of 22.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.39. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $79.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $79.09. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 14.14% and a return on equity of 10.37%. The business had revenue of $4.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.21 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current year.

Xcel Energy Announces Dividend

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