Carret Asset Management LLC Sells 200 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

Carret Asset Management LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 2.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,589 shares of the company’s stock after selling 200 shares during the quarter. Carret Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $532,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Xcel Energy by 15.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,062,856 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,665,677,000 after purchasing an additional 8,644,054 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in Xcel Energy by 16.0% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 18,521,863 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,059,821,000 after purchasing an additional 2,559,321 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 216.1% during the third quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 1,627,320 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,981,000 after acquiring an additional 1,112,510 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 184.9% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,451,483 shares of the company’s stock valued at $89,861,000 after acquiring an additional 942,097 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 247.8% in the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,284,305 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,511,000 after purchasing an additional 915,046 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on XEL shares. Wolfe Research upgraded Xcel Energy from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 11th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Xcel Energy from $67.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. TheStreet lowered Xcel Energy from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Xcel Energy from $68.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, KeyCorp cut their price target on Xcel Energy from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.83.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

Shares of Xcel Energy stock traded down $0.07 on Thursday, reaching $55.26. The stock had a trading volume of 2,562,433 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,348,081. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41. The business’s 50 day moving average is $53.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $58.12. The company has a market cap of $30.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.36. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 1 year low of $46.79 and a 1 year high of $70.97.

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

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, April 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.548 dividend. This represents a $2.19 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.97%. This is an increase from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.22%.

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.