Dearborn Partners LLC Purchases Shares of 10,965 Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Dearborn Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 10,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $871,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of XEL. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in Xcel Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at about $280,187,000. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC increased its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 18.1% in the fourth quarter. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC now owns 2,324,667 shares of the company’s stock worth $171,700,000 after purchasing an additional 356,208 shares in the last quarter. PKO Investment Management Joint Stock Co purchased a new position in shares of Xcel Energy in the fourth quarter worth about $1,477,000. Electron Capital Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 15.2% in the fourth quarter. Electron Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,936,695 shares of the company’s stock valued at $143,044,000 after purchasing an additional 255,884 shares during the period. Finally, Reaves W H & Co. Inc. raised its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 13.1% in the fourth quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 3,579,918 shares of the company’s stock valued at $264,413,000 after purchasing an additional 415,759 shares during the period. 78.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ XEL opened at $76.45 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $47.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 0.39. 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 stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $79.25 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $79.75. Xcel Energy Inc. has a twelve month low of $71.29 and a twelve month high of $84.23.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm 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 posted $1.59 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 20th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be paid a $0.5925 dividend. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is currently 64.93%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $95.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Xcel Energy from $91.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Xcel Energy from $87.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. Finally, Mizuho set a $92.00 target price on Xcel Energy in a report on Friday, July 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Xcel Energy has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $92.41.

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.