Capital Investment Advisors LLC Sells 237 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

Capital Investment Advisors LLC reduced its stake in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,944 shares of the company’s stock after selling 237 shares during the quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $323,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of XEL. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 770.0% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,552,625 shares of the company’s stock valued at $405,955,000 after acquiring an additional 6,684,499 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp boosted its holdings in Xcel Energy by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 4,186,101 shares of the company’s stock valued at $223,264,000 after purchasing an additional 74,690 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 120.2% during the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,379,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $127,095,000 after purchasing an additional 1,299,025 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 130.4% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,084,345 shares of the company’s stock worth $111,325,000 after purchasing an additional 1,179,823 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 10.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,854,333 shares of the company’s stock valued at $99,046,000 after buying an additional 174,653 shares in the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on XEL shares. KeyCorp increased their price target on Xcel Energy from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Argus raised Xcel Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $68.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, August 26th. Barclays raised their price target on Xcel Energy from $57.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $65.29.

Xcel Energy Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of XEL opened at $63.43 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $35.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.05, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.39. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52 week low of $46.79 and a 52 week high of $65.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.97. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $62.72 and a 200-day moving average of $57.62.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by ($0.03). Xcel Energy had a net margin of 13.46% and a return on equity of 10.94%. The firm had revenue of $3.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.29 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.52 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, October 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a dividend of $0.548 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $2.19 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.46%. This is an increase from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.77%.

About Xcel Energy

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.