Fifth Third Bancorp Boosts Stock Holdings in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its position in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 269.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 165,076 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 120,356 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $13,114,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new position in shares of Xcel Energy in the fourth quarter worth $240,000. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 30.7% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 13,810 shares of the company’s stock valued at $978,000 after buying an additional 3,242 shares during the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP increased its holdings in Xcel Energy by 40.7% in the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 48,515 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,434,000 after buying an additional 14,029 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. increased its holdings in Xcel Energy by 4.8% in the 2nd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 10,193 shares of the company’s stock worth $694,000 after buying an additional 469 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cary Street Partners Financial LLC raised its position in Xcel Energy by 16.0% in the 2nd quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC now owns 2,620 shares of the company’s stock worth $178,000 after buying an additional 362 shares during the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on XEL shares. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and set a $96.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Monday, May 4th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Xcel Energy from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Wednesday, June 17th. Morgan Stanley set a $89.00 price objective on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $87.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Xcel Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $92.00.

Xcel Energy Trading Down 0.4%

Xcel Energy stock opened at $80.17 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $79.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $78.98. The company has a market cap of $50.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.39. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52-week low of $68.01 and a 52-week high of $84.23. 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 results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.91. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 14.14% and a return on equity of 10.37%. 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 firm earned $0.84 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current year.

Xcel Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 20th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be given a dividend of $0.5925 per share. 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 payout ratio is presently 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.