Legal & General Group Plc Invests $503.54 Million in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 6,270,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $503,543,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Xcel Energy during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $4,890,136,000. GQG Partners LLC bought a new stake in Xcel Energy in the second quarter valued at approximately $891,688,000. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC bought a new stake in Xcel Energy in the second quarter valued at approximately $708,086,000. Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new stake in shares of Xcel Energy during the second quarter valued at approximately $433,927,000. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 63.6% during the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 9,979,397 shares of the company’s stock valued at $737,078,000 after purchasing an additional 3,881,011 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

Shares of XEL stock opened at $77.33 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $48.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.39. Xcel Energy Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $71.29 and a fifty-two week high of $84.23. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $79.31 and its 200-day moving average price is $79.74. 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 (NASDAQ:XEL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $3.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.54 billion. Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 10.65% and a net margin of 15.28%.The business’s revenue was down 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.59 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Xcel Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 20th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be given a dividend of $0.5925 per share. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is presently 64.93%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

XEL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $92.00 to $89.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Xcel Energy from $95.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Xcel Energy from $87.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $94.00 to $88.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Finally, New Street Research set a $91.00 price objective on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $92.41.

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.