Quarry LP Acquires Shares of 556 Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 556 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Xcel Energy during the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Xcel Energy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Xcel Energy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Heritage Wealth Advisors acquired a new stake in shares of Xcel Energy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Finally, Capital Analysts LLC raised its position in Xcel Energy by 293.6% in the 4th quarter. Capital Analysts LLC now owns 433 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 323 shares during the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on XEL. KeyCorp lowered their target price on Xcel Energy from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Wolfe Research raised Xcel Energy from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, March 11th. StockNews.com raised shares of Xcel Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Xcel Energy from $59.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 28th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $62.27.

Xcel Energy Trading Down 1.0 %

NASDAQ:XEL opened at $53.24 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $54.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $56.82. Xcel Energy Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $46.79 and a fifty-two week high of $65.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.58 billion, a PE ratio of 15.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.38.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $0.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.08. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 13.36% and a return on equity of 11.03%. The company had revenue of $3.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.12 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.76 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, July 20th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.5475 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.11%. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is presently 65.77%.

About Xcel Energy

Xcel Energy Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, purchasing, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity. It operates through Regulated Electric Utility, Regulated Natural Gas Utility, and All Other segments. The company generates electricity through wind, nuclear, hydroelectric, biomass, and solar energy sources, as well as coal, natural gas, oil, wood, and refuse-derived fuels.