Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL Position Cut by Securian Asset Management Inc.

Securian Asset Management Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 43.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 16,085 shares of the company’s stock after selling 12,476 shares during the period. Securian Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $1,188,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 9.9% during the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 28,851,485 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,326,872,000 after purchasing an additional 2,589,406 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in Xcel Energy by 54.3% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 6,098,386 shares of the company’s stock worth $491,835,000 after purchasing an additional 2,145,063 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Xcel Energy by 2.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 76,725,720 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,187,929,000 after purchasing an additional 2,001,018 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in Xcel Energy by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 35,896,553 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,914,984,000 after buying an additional 1,752,296 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. increased its stake in Xcel Energy by 100.3% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 2,519,061 shares of the company’s stock valued at $171,548,000 after buying an additional 1,261,439 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on XEL. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Xcel Energy from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Friday, March 20th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Xcel Energy from $89.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Morgan Stanley set a $92.00 target price on Xcel Energy in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Argus set a $86.00 price target on Xcel Energy in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Xcel Energy presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $90.88.

Xcel Energy Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of NASDAQ:XEL opened at $79.90 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $80.36 and a two-hundred day moving average of $78.68. The company has a quick ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 12-month low of $65.21 and a 12-month high of $84.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $49.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.41.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share 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 prior year, the business posted $0.84 earnings per share. Xcel Energy’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th were paid a dividend of $0.5925 per share. This is a boost from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.30%.

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.