Brookstone Capital Management Purchases 6,339 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Brookstone Capital Management raised its holdings in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 98.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 12,746 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 6,339 shares during the quarter. Brookstone Capital Management’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $941,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 2.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 76,725,720 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,187,929,000 after buying an additional 2,001,018 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Xcel Energy by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 35,896,553 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,914,984,000 after acquiring an additional 1,752,296 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in Xcel Energy by 9.9% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Xcel Energy by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 21,026,015 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,695,748,000 after acquiring an additional 831,639 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 19,526,873 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,574,842,000 after acquiring an additional 807,353 shares in the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

XEL has been the subject of several analyst reports. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Xcel Energy from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Friday, March 20th. BTIG Research set a $94.00 target price on Xcel Energy in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Argus set a $86.00 target price on Xcel Energy in a report on Thursday, March 12th. Mizuho set a $86.00 price target on Xcel Energy in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $95.00 price target on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $88.44.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

NASDAQ XEL opened at $80.74 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. The company has a market cap of $50.37 billion, a PE ratio of 23.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.43. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52 week low of $65.21 and a 52 week high of $84.23. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $79.67 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $78.43.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.96. The company had revenue of $3.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.77 billion. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 13.76% and a return on equity of 10.46%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.81 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $0.5925 per share. This is an increase from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 69.30%.

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.