City State Bank Increases Holdings in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

City State Bank lifted its position in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 43.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,526 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 760 shares during the quarter. City State Bank’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $171,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of XEL. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Xcel Energy by 6.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 37,143,025 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,445,477,000 after acquiring an additional 2,323,448 shares during the period. Brookfield Corp ON grew its holdings in Xcel Energy by 520.1% during the third quarter. Brookfield Corp ON now owns 2,509,031 shares of the company’s stock worth $163,840,000 after acquiring an additional 2,104,405 shares during the period. Merewether Investment Management LP acquired a new stake in Xcel Energy during the third quarter worth about $64,301,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in Xcel Energy by 6.2% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 15,190,756 shares of the company’s stock worth $991,956,000 after acquiring an additional 892,740 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in Xcel Energy by 1,265.6% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 839,146 shares of the company’s stock worth $54,797,000 after acquiring an additional 777,696 shares during the period. 78.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

XEL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised Xcel Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $70.00 to $72.00 in a report on Monday. Barclays raised their price objective on Xcel Energy from $67.00 to $71.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Xcel Energy from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $69.00 to $80.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Xcel Energy from $74.00 to $72.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on Xcel Energy from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Xcel Energy has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $69.67.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

NASDAQ XEL opened at $63.62 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $36.53 billion, a PE ratio of 18.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.42. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $68.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is $63.30. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 1-year low of $46.79 and a 1-year high of $73.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.26 by ($0.01). Xcel Energy had a net margin of 13.67% and a return on equity of 10.76%. The firm had revenue of $3.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.93 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.23 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Investors of record on Monday, January 6th will be given a dividend of $0.5475 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, January 6th. This represents a $2.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.44%. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is 64.99%.

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.