Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL Stake Trimmed by Bruce & Co. Inc.

Bruce & Co. Inc. cut its stake in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 5.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 184,500 shares of the company’s stock after selling 10,000 shares during the period. Xcel Energy makes up about 4.2% of Bruce & Co. Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Bruce & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $14,657,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of XEL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Xcel Energy by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 77,610,805 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,732,334,000 after acquiring an additional 885,085 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,340,645 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,704,534,000 after purchasing an additional 444,092 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 9.0% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 26,262,079 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,788,448,000 after purchasing an additional 2,157,602 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 16.9% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 24,572,438 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,814,920,000 after purchasing an additional 3,546,423 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,496,124 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,214,035,000 after purchasing an additional 126,498 shares in the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on XEL. UBS Group increased their price target on Xcel Energy from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 20th. New Street Research set a $91.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $98.00 price target on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Friday, June 26th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Xcel Energy from $95.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Finally, KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $92.65.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

NASDAQ:XEL opened at $80.77 on Friday. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 1-year low of $69.16 and a 1-year high of $84.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.68. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $79.52 and its 200 day moving average price is $79.24. The firm has a market cap of $50.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.39.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91. The firm had revenue of $4.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current year.

Xcel Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a dividend of $0.5925 per share. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio 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.