Intact Investment Management Inc. Decreases Position in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

Intact Investment Management Inc. lessened its holdings in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 16.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 58,900 shares of the company’s stock after selling 11,500 shares during the quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $3,646,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. DAVENPORT & Co LLC raised its stake in Xcel Energy by 82.4% during the 3rd quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 17,288 shares of the company’s stock worth $989,000 after acquiring an additional 7,811 shares in the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC increased its stake in Xcel Energy by 4.5% in the third quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 5,262 shares of the company’s stock valued at $305,000 after purchasing an additional 228 shares during the period. CX Institutional increased its stake in Xcel Energy by 11.7% in the third quarter. CX Institutional now owns 5,865 shares of the company’s stock valued at $336,000 after purchasing an additional 613 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in Xcel Energy by 5.0% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 5,021 shares of the company’s stock valued at $287,000 after purchasing an additional 241 shares during the period. Finally, Czech National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 48.0% in the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 96,406 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,516,000 after acquiring an additional 31,255 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on XEL shares. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $68.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $67.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Barclays raised shares of Xcel Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $61.00 to $54.00 in a report on Monday, March 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.58.

Xcel Energy Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of XEL traded down $1.05 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $53.96. The company had a trading volume of 6,451,721 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,954,739. The stock has a market cap of $29.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.36. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $53.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.07. Xcel Energy Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $46.79 and a fifty-two week high of $70.72. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $0.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.08. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 13.36% and a return on equity of 11.12%. The company had revenue of $3.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.12 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.76 EPS. Xcel Energy’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, April 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.548 per share. This is a positive change from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.19 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 65.77%.

Xcel Energy Profile

Xcel Energy Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, purchasing, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity. It operates through Regulated Electric Utility, Regulated Natural Gas Utility, and All Other segments. The company generates electricity through wind, nuclear, hydroelectric, biomass, and solar energy sources, as well as coal, natural gas, oil, wood, and refuse-derived fuels.