Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Buys 17,817 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund boosted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 35.8% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 67,585 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 17,817 shares during the quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $5,451,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in XEL. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 9.0% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 26,262,079 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,788,448,000 after purchasing an additional 2,157,602 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in Xcel Energy by 10.3% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 18,719,520 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,274,799,000 after purchasing an additional 1,746,066 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Xcel Energy by 29.0% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,366,422 shares of the company’s stock valued at $501,653,000 after buying an additional 1,654,505 shares in the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in Xcel Energy by 2,324.9% during the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,716,351 shares of the company’s stock worth $116,884,000 after buying an additional 1,645,571 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. grew its stake in Xcel Energy by 100.3% during the second quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 2,519,061 shares of the company’s stock worth $171,548,000 after buying an additional 1,261,439 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $90.00 to $87.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Barclays raised their price target on Xcel Energy from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $84.00 price objective on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. KeyCorp decreased their target price on Xcel Energy from $85.00 to $84.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Xcel Energy from $84.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Xcel Energy presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $87.21.

Xcel Energy Stock Up 1.2%

NASDAQ:XEL opened at $74.26 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $43.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.79. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $77.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $75.26. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52-week low of $62.58 and a 52-week high of $83.01.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $1.24 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.32 by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $3.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.89 billion. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 13.46% and a return on equity of 10.45%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.25 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.82 EPS for the current year.

Xcel Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.57 per share. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 29th. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is currently 69.51%.

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.