Legal & General Group Plc Grows Holdings in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 3.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,243,497 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 229,444 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 1.06% of Xcel Energy worth $461,145,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in XEL. Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new stake in Xcel Energy during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $240,000. Empowered Funds LLC grew its holdings in Xcel Energy by 30.7% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 13,810 shares of the company’s stock valued at $978,000 after buying an additional 3,242 shares in the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP grew its holdings in Xcel Energy by 40.7% during the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 48,515 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,434,000 after buying an additional 14,029 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in Xcel Energy by 4.8% during the 2nd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 10,193 shares of the company’s stock valued at $694,000 after buying an additional 469 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cary Street Partners Financial LLC grew its holdings in Xcel Energy by 16.0% during the 2nd quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC now owns 2,620 shares of the company’s stock valued at $178,000 after buying an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

XEL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $95.00 to $92.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $94.00 to $91.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 14th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. Morgan Stanley set a $87.00 price objective on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Thursday. Finally, BTIG Research set a $94.00 price objective on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Friday, January 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $90.63.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

XEL stock opened at $81.08 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $79.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $78.62. Xcel Energy Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $65.21 and a fifty-two week high of $84.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.77. The firm has a market cap of $50.62 billion, a PE ratio of 23.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.41.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 14.14% and a return on equity of 10.37%. The firm had revenue of $4.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.21 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.84 earnings per share. Xcel Energy’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 earnings per share 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. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be given a $0.5925 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.