North Dakota State Investment Board Acquires New Stake in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

North Dakota State Investment Board bought a new stake in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 20,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,499,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Elyxium Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Xcel Energy during the 4th quarter worth $137,000. iA Global Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Xcel Energy by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 73,546 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,432,000 after purchasing an additional 5,068 shares during the last quarter. Beese Fulmer Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in Xcel Energy in the 4th quarter valued at about $486,000. Accredited Investors Inc. raised its stake in Xcel Energy by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. Accredited Investors Inc. now owns 22,413 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,655,000 after purchasing an additional 1,267 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan increased its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 30.2% during the 4th quarter. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan now owns 13,522 shares of the company’s stock valued at $999,000 after acquiring an additional 3,140 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on XEL. BTIG Research set a $94.00 price objective on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $96.00 price target on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Monday, May 4th. Wall Street Zen cut Xcel Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Xcel Energy from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $92.00 price objective on Xcel Energy in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $90.94.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ XEL opened at $79.73 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $49.77 billion, a PE ratio of 22.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.68. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 1-year low of $65.21 and a 1-year high of $84.23. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $79.98 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $78.64.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91. The company had revenue of $4.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.21 billion. Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 10.37% and a net margin of 14.14%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.84 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th were issued a dividend of $0.5925 per share. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. This is a positive change from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 68.30%.

Xcel Energy 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.