Jennison Associates LLC Boosts Stake in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL
by Jessica Moore · The Cerbat GemJennison Associates LLC grew its stake in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL – Free Report) by 10.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,961,795 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 181,303 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $144,898,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 2,001,018 shares during the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Xcel Energy during the third quarter worth $6,994,000. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S raised its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 86.6% during the third quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 41,406 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,339,000 after purchasing an additional 19,214 shares during the last quarter. USA Financial Formulas raised its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 491.3% during the fourth quarter. USA Financial Formulas now owns 21,435 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,583,000 after purchasing an additional 17,810 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Intact Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 23.1% during the third quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 83,100 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,702,000 after purchasing an additional 15,600 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.
Analyst Ratings Changes
XEL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $95.00 price target on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Xcel Energy from $82.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Morgan Stanley set a $92.00 price target on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Xcel Energy from $89.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, BTIG Research set a $94.00 price target on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $90.88.
Read Our Latest Stock Report on XEL
Xcel Energy Stock Up 2.8%
Shares of NASDAQ XEL opened at $81.02 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $80.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $78.70. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52-week low of $65.21 and a 52-week high of $84.23. The firm has a market cap of $50.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a quick ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35.
Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.91. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 13.76% and a return on equity of 10.46%. The business had revenue of $4.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.19 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.84 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Xcel Energy Increases Dividend
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th were given a $0.5925 dividend. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. This is a positive change from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 13th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 69.30%.
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.
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