Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Buys New Stake in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new position in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 728,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $58,482,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Xcel Energy in the second quarter worth about $4,890,136,000. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Xcel Energy by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,340,645 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,704,534,000 after purchasing an additional 444,092 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in Xcel Energy by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 29,441,811 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,338,858,000 after purchasing an additional 1,637,890 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Xcel Energy by 16.9% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 24,572,438 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,814,920,000 after buying an additional 3,546,423 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Xcel Energy by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,496,124 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,214,035,000 after buying an additional 126,498 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on XEL. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Xcel Energy from $92.00 to $89.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 21st. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $94.00 to $88.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $91.00 to $102.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Xcel Energy from $87.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Xcel Energy presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $92.41.

Xcel Energy Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of XEL opened at $77.16 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $79.27 and its 200 day moving average price is $79.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.39. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 12-month low of $71.29 and a 12-month high of $84.23.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.14. Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 10.65% and a net margin of 15.28%.The company had revenue of $3.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.54 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.59 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Xcel Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 20th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be given a $0.5925 dividend. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 64.93%.

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.