Mizuho Markets Americas LLC Buys Shares of 805,100 Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Mizuho Markets Americas LLC bought a new stake in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 805,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,957,000. Xcel Energy makes up about 1.7% of Mizuho Markets Americas LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 16th largest holding.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of XEL. Bank of Nova Scotia boosted its holdings in Xcel Energy by 16.6% during the 1st quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 159,351 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,659,000 after acquiring an additional 22,722 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. increased its stake in Xcel Energy by 3.6% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,157,937 shares of the company’s stock worth $91,986,000 after purchasing an additional 40,369 shares during the period. Lido Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 9.8% during the first quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 31,316 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,504,000 after purchasing an additional 2,805 shares during the last quarter. State of Wyoming lifted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 113.8% during the first quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 5,374 shares of the company’s stock worth $427,000 after purchasing an additional 2,861 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arvest Bank Trust Division purchased a new stake in shares of Xcel Energy during the first quarter valued at $202,000. 78.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on XEL. Morgan Stanley set a $89.00 price target on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $91.00 to $102.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. New Street Research set a $91.00 price objective on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $95.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Xcel Energy has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $92.65.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

XEL stock opened at $80.77 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.68. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $79.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $79.24. The company has a market capitalization of $50.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.28, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.39. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 1-year low of $69.16 and a 1-year high of $84.23.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $4.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.21 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.84 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 20th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were given a $0.5925 dividend. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.30%.

Xcel Energy Company 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.