Fifth Third Bancorp Raises Stake in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Fifth Third Bancorp grew its position in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 269.1% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 165,076 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 120,356 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $13,114,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Barclays PLC lifted 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 valued at $737,078,000 after acquiring an additional 3,881,011 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 16.9% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 24,572,438 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,814,920,000 after purchasing an additional 3,546,423 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 37.1% during the first quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 8,871,863 shares of the company’s stock worth $704,780,000 after purchasing an additional 2,399,089 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in 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 valued at $1,788,448,000 after purchasing an additional 2,157,602 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners raised its stake in Xcel Energy by 4,530.7% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,024,541 shares of the company’s stock valued at $149,538,000 after purchasing an additional 1,980,821 shares during the period. 78.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on XEL. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $96.00 price target on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Monday, May 4th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $87.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Morgan Stanley set a $89.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $101.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $92.00.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

Xcel Energy stock opened at $80.17 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $50.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.10, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.39. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $79.61 and its 200 day moving average is $78.98. The company has a quick ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52-week low of $68.01 and a 52-week high of $84.23.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 14.14% and a return on equity of 10.37%. The business had revenue of $4.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.21 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.84 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Dividend Announcement

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

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.