Employees Retirement System of Texas Sells 47,449 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Employees Retirement System of Texas lessened its stake in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 50.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 45,867 shares of the company’s stock after selling 47,449 shares during the period. Employees Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $3,388,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 77,610,805 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,732,334,000 after acquiring an additional 885,085 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 1,752,296 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE increased 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 valued at $2,326,872,000 after purchasing an additional 2,589,406 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased 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 valued at $1,695,748,000 after purchasing an additional 831,639 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Xcel Energy by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,782,869 shares of the company’s stock valued at $627,688,000 after purchasing an additional 416,447 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Xcel Energy Stock Up 0.3%

XEL stock opened at $81.00 on Thursday. Xcel Energy Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $65.21 and a fifty-two week high of $84.23. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $79.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $78.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.77. The company has a market capitalization of $50.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.41.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91. Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 10.37% and a net margin of 14.14%.The firm had revenue of $4.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.21 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.84 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.5925 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 68.30%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on XEL. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Xcel Energy from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Xcel Energy from $94.00 to $91.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Argus set a $86.00 price target on Xcel Energy in a report on Thursday, March 12th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Xcel Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $87.00 price target on Xcel Energy in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $90.63.

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.