Anchor Capital Advisors LLC Decreases Stock Position in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

Anchor Capital Advisors LLC lessened its position in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 4.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 547,592 shares of the company’s stock after selling 26,294 shares during the period. Anchor Capital Advisors LLC owned 0.10% of Xcel Energy worth $33,901,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Intrust Bank NA boosted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 29.4% in the fourth quarter. Intrust Bank NA now owns 9,081 shares of the company’s stock valued at $562,000 after acquiring an additional 2,064 shares during the period. Choreo LLC boosted its holdings in Xcel Energy by 10.1% in the 4th quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 5,010 shares of the company’s stock valued at $310,000 after purchasing an additional 459 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 18.1% during the 4th quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 1,185,235 shares of the company’s stock valued at $73,378,000 after purchasing an additional 181,312 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Equity Partners bought a new position in shares of Xcel Energy in the fourth quarter worth $220,000. Finally, Truist Financial Corp raised its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 85.0% in the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 144,788 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,964,000 after buying an additional 66,524 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on XEL. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Xcel Energy from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. TheStreet lowered shares of Xcel Energy from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Xcel Energy from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Xcel Energy from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, March 11th. Finally, KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of Xcel Energy from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.58.

Xcel Energy Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of Xcel Energy stock traded up $0.52 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $54.48. The company had a trading volume of 3,884,496 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,400,067. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52-week low of $46.79 and a 52-week high of $70.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a 50 day moving average of $53.77 and a 200 day moving average of $58.07.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $0.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.08. Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 11.03% and a net margin of 13.36%. The firm had revenue of $3.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.12 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.76 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, April 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 65.77%.

Xcel Energy Company 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.