LPL Financial LLC Purchases 75,319 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

LPL Financial LLC raised its position in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 4.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,780,659 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 75,319 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $131,519,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 77,610,805 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,732,334,000 after purchasing an additional 885,085 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 35,896,553 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,914,984,000 after purchasing an additional 1,752,296 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 9.9% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 28,851,485 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,326,872,000 after purchasing an additional 2,589,406 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Xcel Energy by 16.9% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 24,572,438 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,814,920,000 after purchasing an additional 3,546,423 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Xcel Energy by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,496,124 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,214,035,000 after purchasing an additional 126,498 shares in the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Xcel Energy Trading Up 0.3%

Xcel Energy stock opened at $78.10 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $79.78 and a 200 day moving average of $78.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.39. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 12-month low of $65.21 and a 12-month high of $84.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45.

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

Xcel Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be paid a $0.5925 dividend. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.30%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

XEL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Truist Financial lowered their target price on Xcel Energy from $95.00 to $92.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 18th. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Monday. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Xcel Energy from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $96.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Xcel Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Xcel Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $90.63.

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.