Van ECK Associates Corp Has $22.41 Million Position in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 38.5% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 277,877 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 77,202 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $22,410,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 9.0% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 26,262,079 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,788,448,000 after purchasing an additional 2,157,602 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 54.3% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 6,098,386 shares of the company’s stock valued at $491,835,000 after purchasing an additional 2,145,063 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted 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 in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in Xcel Energy by 10.3% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 18,719,520 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,274,799,000 after purchasing an additional 1,746,066 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Xcel Energy by 29.0% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,366,422 shares of the company’s stock worth $501,653,000 after buying an additional 1,654,505 shares during the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings lowered Xcel Energy from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Xcel Energy from $85.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 15th. UBS Group raised Xcel Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $81.00 to $89.00 in a research note on Friday, February 13th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, BTIG Research set a $94.00 target price on Xcel Energy in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $88.44.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

Xcel Energy stock traded up $1.12 on Friday, reaching $81.94. 712,785 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,005,729. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. Xcel Energy Inc. has a twelve month low of $65.21 and a twelve month high of $84.23. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $78.27 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $77.63. The stock has a market cap of $51.12 billion, a PE ratio of 23.96, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.45.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.96. The company had revenue of $3.56 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.77 billion. Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 10.46% and a net margin of 13.76%.The firm’s revenue was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.81 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.82 EPS for the current year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a $0.5925 dividend. This is an increase from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is 69.30%.

About Xcel Energy

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.