Pacer Advisors Inc. Purchases 10,768 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 11.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 101,801 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,768 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $7,519,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Brighton Jones LLC bought a new position in shares of Xcel Energy during the 4th quarter valued at $240,000. Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in Xcel Energy by 30.7% in the 1st 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 lifted its stake in Xcel Energy by 40.7% in 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 last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in Xcel Energy by 4.8% in the second quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 10,193 shares of the company’s stock worth $694,000 after purchasing an additional 469 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cary Street Partners Financial LLC boosted 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 buying an additional 362 shares during the period. 78.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on XEL shares. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $96.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Argus set a $86.00 price target on Xcel Energy in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. Wall Street Zen cut Xcel Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Xcel Energy from $94.00 to $91.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on Xcel Energy from $91.00 to $87.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $90.62.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

NASDAQ:XEL opened at $77.41 on Monday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $79.48 and a 200-day moving average price of $78.33. The stock has a market cap of $48.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.31, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 12 month low of $66.32 and a 12 month high of $84.23.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.91. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 14.14% and a return on equity of 10.37%. The company had revenue of $4.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.21 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.84 earnings per share. Xcel Energy’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current year.

Xcel Energy Dividend Announcement

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 issued a dividend of $0.5925 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. 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.