Electron Capital Partners LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Electron Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 15.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,936,695 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 255,884 shares during the period. Xcel Energy makes up about 6.6% of Electron Capital Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. Electron Capital Partners LLC owned approximately 0.33% of Xcel Energy worth $143,044,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in XEL. Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 63.6% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 9,979,397 shares of the company’s stock worth $737,078,000 after acquiring an additional 3,881,011 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 16.9% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 24,572,438 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,814,920,000 after acquiring an additional 3,546,423 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 9.9% in the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 28,851,485 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,326,872,000 after acquiring an additional 2,589,406 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 4,530.7% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,024,541 shares of the company’s stock worth $149,538,000 after acquiring an additional 1,980,821 shares in the last quarter. Finally, OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp increased its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 8,880.6% in the fourth quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 1,785,155 shares of the company’s stock worth $131,852,000 after acquiring an additional 1,765,277 shares in the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on XEL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $94.00 to $91.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $96.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Xcel Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $87.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $90.63.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

Shares of XEL opened at $77.46 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $79.62 and its 200 day moving average price is $78.38. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52 week low of $65.21 and a 52 week high of $84.23. The company has a market capitalization of $48.36 billion, a PE ratio of 22.32, a PEG ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.77.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 14.14% and a return on equity of 10.37%. The firm had revenue of $4.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.21 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.84 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 20th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be given a dividend of $0.5925 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is presently 68.30%.

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.