SG Americas Securities LLC Sells 758,040 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

SG Americas Securities LLC trimmed its stake in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 61.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 471,299 shares of the company’s stock after selling 758,040 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC owned 0.08% of Xcel Energy worth $37,440,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of XEL. USA Financial Formulas lifted its holdings in Xcel Energy by 491.3% during the fourth quarter. USA Financial Formulas now owns 21,435 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,583,000 after purchasing an additional 17,810 shares in the last quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd increased its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 6.1% in the third quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd now owns 2,125,537 shares of the company’s stock worth $171,425,000 after purchasing an additional 122,487 shares in the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. increased its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 6.8% in the third quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 2,357,297 shares of the company’s stock worth $190,116,000 after purchasing an additional 150,768 shares in the last quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise raised its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 175.0% during the 3rd quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 29,147 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,351,000 after purchasing an additional 18,550 shares during the period. Finally, Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA raised its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 226.4% during the 4th quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA now owns 42,354 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,128,000 after purchasing an additional 29,376 shares during the period. 78.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

XEL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $94.00 to $91.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $96.00 price target on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Wall Street Zen cut Xcel Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Morgan Stanley set a $87.00 price objective on Xcel Energy in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Xcel Energy from $94.00 to $91.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Three 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Xcel Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $90.94.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

NASDAQ:XEL opened at $80.33 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $79.36 and its 200 day moving average is $78.34. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 12 month low of $66.56 and a 12 month high of $84.23. The company has a market capitalization of $50.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.39. 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 (NASDAQ:XEL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate 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 analysts’ expectations of $4.21 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.84 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 20th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be issued a $0.5925 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. 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.