Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) Shares Sold by White Pine Capital LLC

White Pine Capital LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 12.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 20,265 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,919 shares during the quarter. White Pine Capital LLC’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $1,255,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in XEL. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 15.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,062,856 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,665,677,000 after purchasing an additional 8,644,054 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in Xcel Energy by 16.0% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 18,521,863 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,059,821,000 after acquiring an additional 2,559,321 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its position in Xcel Energy by 216.1% during the 3rd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 1,627,320 shares of the company’s stock worth $92,981,000 after acquiring an additional 1,112,510 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in Xcel Energy by 184.9% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,451,483 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,861,000 after acquiring an additional 942,097 shares during the period. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its position in Xcel Energy by 247.8% during the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,284,305 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,511,000 after acquiring an additional 915,046 shares during the period. 78.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on XEL. StockNews.com cut Xcel Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Xcel Energy from $67.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Xcel Energy from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Xcel Energy from $68.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Xcel Energy from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, March 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.58.

Xcel Energy Stock Down 1.9 %

NASDAQ:XEL traded down $1.05 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $53.96. The company had a trading volume of 6,451,721 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,954,739. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $53.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.07. 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 Inc. has a 1 year low of $46.79 and a 1 year high of $70.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.81, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.36.

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

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, April 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.548 per share. This represents a $2.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.06%. This is a positive change from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is presently 68.22%.

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.