Wealth Alliance Grows Holdings in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

Wealth Alliance grew its holdings in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 88.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,305 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,262 shares during the period. Wealth Alliance’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $824,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of XEL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 15.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,062,856 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,665,677,000 after buying an additional 8,644,054 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Xcel Energy during the fourth quarter valued at $576,873,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Xcel Energy during the fourth quarter valued at $231,020,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 16.0% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 18,521,863 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,059,821,000 after buying an additional 2,559,321 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 165.3% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,899,289 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,159,000 after buying an additional 1,183,298 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on XEL. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Xcel Energy from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Xcel Energy from $68.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Xcel Energy from $67.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. TheStreet downgraded Xcel Energy from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, Barclays raised Xcel Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $61.00 to $54.00 in a report on Monday, March 11th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $63.08.

Xcel Energy Stock Down 1.2 %

Xcel Energy stock opened at $52.53 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.18 billion, a PE ratio of 16.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.36. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 12 month low of $46.79 and a 12 month high of $71.32. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $54.42 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.59.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $3.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.01 billion. Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 10.78% and a net margin of 12.47%. The business’s revenue was down 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.69 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, April 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be paid a $0.548 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.17%. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is currently 68.22%.

Xcel Energy Company 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.