ABN Amro Investment Solutions Lowers Stake in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

ABN Amro Investment Solutions lowered its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 52.4% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 50,062 shares of the company’s stock after selling 55,034 shares during the period. ABN Amro Investment Solutions’ holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $3,977,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 77,610,805 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,732,334,000 after purchasing an additional 885,085 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,340,645 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,704,534,000 after buying an additional 444,092 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 9.0% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 26,262,079 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,788,448,000 after buying an additional 2,157,602 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 16.9% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 24,572,438 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,814,920,000 after buying an additional 3,546,423 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Xcel Energy by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,496,124 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,214,035,000 after buying an additional 126,498 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

XEL stock opened at $80.77 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $79.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $79.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 12-month low of $69.16 and a 12-month high of $84.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $50.42 billion, a PE ratio of 23.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.39.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.91 EPS 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 business had revenue of $4.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.21 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.84 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 20th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a $0.5925 dividend. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.30%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

XEL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Monday, June 8th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Xcel Energy from $95.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. New Street Research set a $91.00 price target on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Xcel Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $92.65.

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.