Lombard Odier Asset Management Switzerland SA Buys Shares of 19,800 Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Lombard Odier Asset Management Switzerland SA purchased a new stake in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 19,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,573,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 77,610,805 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,732,334,000 after buying an additional 885,085 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Xcel Energy by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,340,645 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,704,534,000 after buying an additional 444,092 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in 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 acquiring an additional 2,157,602 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in 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 acquiring an additional 3,546,423 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Xcel Energy by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,496,124 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,214,035,000 after acquiring an additional 126,498 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on XEL shares. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Xcel Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $94.00 to $91.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Monday, June 8th. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and issued a $98.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $92.65.

Xcel Energy Stock Down 1.2%

Shares of NASDAQ XEL opened at $80.71 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $79.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $79.34. 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 Inc. has a 1 year low of $69.16 and a 1 year high of $84.23. The firm has a market cap of $50.38 billion, a PE ratio of 23.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.39.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 14.14% and a return on equity of 10.37%. The firm had revenue of $4.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.21 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.84 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current year.

Xcel Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 20th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is 68.30%.

Xcel Energy Profile

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.