Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) have received a consensus rating of “Buy” from the seventeen brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $92.00.

A number of research firms recently commented on XEL. UBS Group boosted their price target on Xcel Energy from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $94.00 to $91.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Xcel Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $98.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Friday, June 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Tema ETFs LLC raised its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 43.3% during the 2nd quarter. Tema ETFs LLC now owns 196,808 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,804,000 after acquiring an additional 59,458 shares in the last quarter. Ausbil Investment Management Ltd bought a new position in shares of Xcel Energy during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $7,514,000. Sapient Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Xcel Energy in the second quarter valued at $1,274,000. Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC grew its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 25.2% in the second quarter. Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC now owns 95,287 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,652,000 after purchasing an additional 19,196 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Xcel Energy by 6.9% during the second quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 58,481 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,696,000 after purchasing an additional 3,787 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

Shares of Xcel Energy stock opened at $79.25 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $79.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $79.01. Xcel Energy has a 52 week low of $68.32 and a 52 week high of $84.23. The company has a market capitalization of $49.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.84, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.21 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Xcel Energy will post 4.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be paid a $0.5925 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is presently 68.30%.

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.