Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. Purchases 13,728 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 64.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 34,967 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 13,728 shares during the quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $2,820,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Xcel Energy by 0.4% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 34,144,257 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,344,295,000 after acquiring an additional 126,790 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in Xcel Energy by 9.0% during the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 26,262,079 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,788,448,000 after buying an additional 2,157,602 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in Xcel Energy by 10.3% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 18,719,520 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,274,799,000 after purchasing an additional 1,746,066 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,191,204 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,108,006,000 after buying an additional 460,103 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 29.0% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,366,422 shares of the company’s stock valued at $501,653,000 after purchasing an additional 1,654,505 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on XEL. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Xcel Energy from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. BTIG Research raised shares of Xcel Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Morgan Stanley restated an “underperform” rating and set a $84.00 price objective on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Tuesday, October 28th. They issued a “moderate buy” rating on the stock. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Xcel Energy from $80.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Xcel Energy currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $87.29.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

XEL stock opened at $73.22 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $43.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.46. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52 week low of $62.58 and a 52 week high of $83.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.79. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $77.54 and a 200 day simple moving average of $75.18.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $1.24 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.32 by ($0.08). Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 10.45% and a net margin of 13.46%.The firm had revenue of $3.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.89 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.25 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.57 per share. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 29th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 69.51%.

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.