Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL Shares Sold by USA Financial Formulas

USA Financial Formulas decreased its position in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 57.1% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 9,197 shares of the company’s stock after selling 12,238 shares during the period. USA Financial Formulas’ holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $731,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Xcel Energy by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 77,610,805 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,732,334,000 after acquiring an additional 885,085 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in Xcel Energy by 1.2% in the fourth 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 grew its holdings in shares of 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 worth $2,338,858,000 after purchasing an additional 1,637,890 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 16.9% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 24,572,438 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,814,920,000 after purchasing an additional 3,546,423 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised 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 period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on XEL shares. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Xcel Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Mizuho set a $92.00 price target on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Friday, July 31st. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Monday, June 8th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $95.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, New Street Research set a $91.00 price objective on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Xcel Energy presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $92.41.

Xcel Energy Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of XEL opened at $79.17 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $79.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $79.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.70. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 1 year low of $69.16 and a 1 year high of $84.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $49.45 billion, a PE ratio of 21.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.39.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.14. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 15.28% and a return on equity of 10.65%. The firm had revenue of $3.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.54 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.59 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 20th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be given a dividend of $0.5925 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 64.93%.

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.