Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL Shares Purchased by NewEdge Advisors LLC

NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 13.4% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 101,144 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,918 shares during the quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $8,035,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in XEL. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 1.7% during the third quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 7,358 shares of the company’s stock worth $593,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC grew its position in Xcel Energy by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 28,949 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,138,000 after buying an additional 131 shares during the last quarter. Hills Bank & Trust Co grew its position in Xcel Energy by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Hills Bank & Trust Co now owns 6,184 shares of the company’s stock valued at $457,000 after buying an additional 133 shares during the last quarter. Keel Point LLC increased its stake in Xcel Energy by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Keel Point LLC now owns 5,485 shares of the company’s stock valued at $405,000 after buying an additional 137 shares during the period. Finally, KCM Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Xcel Energy by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. KCM Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,549 shares of the company’s stock worth $600,000 after buying an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $87.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $96.00 price target on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Monday, May 4th. Morgan Stanley set a $89.00 price objective on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Wall Street Zen lowered Xcel Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $101.00 target price on Xcel Energy in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Two research 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Xcel Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $92.76.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

Xcel Energy stock opened at $78.07 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.39. Xcel Energy Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $69.16 and a fifty-two week high of $84.23. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $79.26 and its two-hundred day moving average is $79.55.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $3.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.54 billion. Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 10.65% and a net margin of 15.28%.The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.59 EPS. Analysts predict that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 20th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.5925 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 64.93%.

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.