Legal & General Group Plc Buys 229,444 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 3.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,243,497 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 229,444 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $461,145,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Hantz Financial Services Inc. lifted its position in Xcel Energy by 70.4% in the fourth quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 2,774 shares of the company’s stock worth $205,000 after buying an additional 1,146 shares during the last quarter. OLD Republic International Corp lifted its position in Xcel Energy by 25.5% in the fourth quarter. OLD Republic International Corp now owns 655,300 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,400,000 after buying an additional 133,100 shares during the last quarter. MQS Management LLC bought a new stake in Xcel Energy in the fourth quarter worth $368,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Xcel Energy by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 11,885 shares of the company’s stock worth $878,000 after buying an additional 495 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lloyd Advisory Services LLC. lifted its position in Xcel Energy by 9.6% in the fourth quarter. Lloyd Advisory Services LLC. now owns 2,819 shares of the company’s stock worth $208,000 after buying an additional 247 shares during the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on XEL. Barclays decreased their target price on Xcel Energy from $91.00 to $87.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Xcel Energy from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Weiss Ratings upgraded Xcel Energy from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Argus set a $86.00 target price on Xcel Energy in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. Finally, Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $96.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $90.63.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

Shares of Xcel Energy stock opened at $81.08 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $50.62 billion, a PE ratio of 23.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.77. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $79.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $78.62. Xcel Energy Inc. has a one year low of $65.21 and a one year high of $84.23.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91. The business had revenue of $4.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.21 billion. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 14.14% and a return on equity of 10.37%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current fiscal 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 $0.5925 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is currently 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.