Blue Capital Inc. Takes $2.63 Million Position in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Blue Capital Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 35,639 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,632,000. Xcel Energy makes up approximately 1.9% of Blue Capital Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest position.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in Xcel Energy by 63.6% during the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 9,979,397 shares of the company’s stock valued at $737,078,000 after buying an additional 3,881,011 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 16.9% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 24,572,438 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,814,920,000 after acquiring an additional 3,546,423 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 9.9% during the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 28,851,485 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,326,872,000 after acquiring an additional 2,589,406 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its position in Xcel Energy by 4,530.7% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,024,541 shares of the company’s stock worth $149,538,000 after purchasing an additional 1,980,821 shares in the last quarter. Finally, OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp increased its position in Xcel Energy by 8,880.6% during the 4th quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 1,785,155 shares of the company’s stock worth $131,852,000 after purchasing an additional 1,765,277 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on XEL shares. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Monday, June 8th. 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 note on Thursday, May 14th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $96.00 price target on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $87.00 price objective on Xcel Energy in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $90.62.

Xcel Energy Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of XEL stock opened at $77.41 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $48.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.31, a PEG ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.39. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 1-year low of $66.32 and a 1-year high of $84.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.68. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $79.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $78.34.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.91. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 14.14% and a return on equity of 10.37%. The business had revenue of $4.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.21 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.84 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current 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 issued a $0.5925 dividend. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.30%.

About Xcel Energy

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.