Ballentine Partners LLC Sells 2,776 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

Ballentine Partners LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 17.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 13,467 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,776 shares during the quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $724,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 8.1% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 494,256 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,281,000 after purchasing an additional 36,934 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 25.0% in the third quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 690,616 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,517,000 after purchasing an additional 138,004 shares during the period. Mariner LLC grew its stake in Xcel Energy by 1.3% in the third quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 79,027 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,522,000 after purchasing an additional 1,030 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in Xcel Energy by 3,124.4% in the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 369,259 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,129,000 after purchasing an additional 357,807 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Profund Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Xcel Energy by 22.1% during the 3rd quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 57,770 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,306,000 after purchasing an additional 10,465 shares during the period. 78.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ XEL traded up $0.21 during trading on Monday, reaching $53.58. 73,850 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,840,794. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 12-month low of $46.79 and a 12-month high of $65.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48. The stock has a market cap of $29.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.20, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.38. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $54.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.59.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) 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 business had revenue of $3.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.12 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.76 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, July 20th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.5475 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.19 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.09%. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 65.77%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Xcel Energy Profile

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.