Aventail Capital Group LP Has $16.63 Million Stock Position in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Aventail Capital Group LP lowered its position in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 73.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 225,113 shares of the company’s stock after selling 620,376 shares during the period. Xcel Energy makes up 1.0% of Aventail Capital Group LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest position. Aventail Capital Group LP’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $16,627,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in XEL. Brighton Jones LLC bought a new stake in shares of Xcel Energy during the 4th quarter worth approximately $240,000. Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 30.7% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 13,810 shares of the company’s stock worth $978,000 after purchasing an additional 3,242 shares in the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP raised its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 40.7% during the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 48,515 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,434,000 after purchasing an additional 14,029 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 4.8% during the 2nd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 10,193 shares of the company’s stock worth $694,000 after purchasing an additional 469 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cary Street Partners Financial LLC raised its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 16.0% during the 2nd quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC now owns 2,620 shares of the company’s stock worth $178,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on XEL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Xcel Energy from $94.00 to $91.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Morgan Stanley set a $87.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Truist Financial reduced their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $95.00 to $92.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 18th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Xcel Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Monday, June 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Xcel Energy has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $90.63.

Xcel Energy Stock Down 1.9%

XEL stock opened at $77.46 on Thursday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $48.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.32, a PEG ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.39. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $79.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $78.38. Xcel Energy Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $65.21 and a fifty-two week high of $84.23.

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. The company had revenue of $4.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.21 billion. Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 10.37% and a net margin of 14.14%.Xcel Energy’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.84 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Xcel Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 20th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be paid a $0.5925 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.30%.

Xcel Energy Company Profile

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.