Russell Investments Group Ltd. Purchases 181,312 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 18.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,185,235 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 181,312 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned approximately 0.21% of Xcel Energy worth $73,378,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC grew its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC now owns 26,007 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,610,000 after buying an additional 169 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 20,580 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,274,000 after buying an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC grew its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 29.1% during the third quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 812 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 183 shares during the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P grew its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 20.1% in the third quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 1,123 shares of the company’s stock worth $64,000 after purchasing an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Xponance Inc. grew its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 70,411 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,359,000 after purchasing an additional 198 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on XEL. StockNews.com cut shares of Xcel Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday. Barclays raised shares of Xcel Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $61.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Monday, March 11th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $67.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Xcel Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.58.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ XEL opened at $53.96 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $53.77 and its 200-day moving average price is $58.07. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 1-year low of $46.79 and a 1-year high of $70.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $0.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.08. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 13.36% and a return on equity of 11.03%. The firm had revenue of $3.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.12 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.76 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, April 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.548 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $2.19 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.06%. This is a positive change from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 65.77%.

Xcel Energy Profile

Xcel Energy Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, purchasing, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity. It operates through Regulated Electric Utility, Regulated Natural Gas Utility, and All Other segments. The company generates electricity through wind, nuclear, hydroelectric, biomass, and solar energy sources, as well as coal, natural gas, oil, wood, and refuse-derived fuels.