Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL Shares Sold by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. decreased its holdings in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 4.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,445,804 shares of the company’s stock after selling 73,833 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $114,855,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of XEL. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in Xcel Energy by 63.6% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 9,979,397 shares of the company’s stock worth $737,078,000 after purchasing an additional 3,881,011 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Xcel Energy by 16.9% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 24,572,438 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,814,920,000 after buying an additional 3,546,423 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 9.9% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 28,851,485 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,326,872,000 after buying an additional 2,589,406 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 37.1% during the 1st quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 8,871,863 shares of the company’s stock worth $704,780,000 after buying an additional 2,399,089 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 4,530.7% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,024,541 shares of the company’s stock worth $149,538,000 after acquiring an additional 1,980,821 shares during the period. 78.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on XEL shares. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Xcel Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $101.00 target price on Xcel Energy in a report on Tuesday. Barclays increased their price target on Xcel Energy from $87.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Finally, BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $98.00 price objective on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $92.00.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:XEL traded up $1.04 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $80.06. 3,537,624 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,412,549. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $79.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $78.85. The company has a market cap of $49.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.77. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52 week low of $67.81 and a 52 week high of $84.23.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.91 EPS 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 business had revenue of $4.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.21 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared 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 of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. Xcel Energy’s dividend 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.