Victory Capital Management Inc. Has $480.80 Million Stake in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 3.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,766,048 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 261,426 shares during the period. Xcel Energy makes up about 0.5% of Victory Capital Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned approximately 1.41% of Xcel Energy worth $480,796,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 298,074 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,448,000 after buying an additional 7,679 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 47.7% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 115,016 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,121,000 after purchasing an additional 37,131 shares in the last quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP lifted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 930.5% during the third quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP now owns 45,918 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,627,000 after purchasing an additional 41,462 shares in the last quarter. First Bank & Trust lifted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 66.8% during the fourth quarter. First Bank & Trust now owns 70,404 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,359,000 after purchasing an additional 28,187 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Xcel Energy by 15.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,062,856 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,665,677,000 after buying an additional 8,644,054 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on XEL shares. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. 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 target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Xcel Energy from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, March 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Xcel Energy presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.83.

Xcel Energy Stock Up 0.2 %

Xcel Energy stock traded up $0.11 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $53.84. The stock had a trading volume of 1,691,107 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,371,446. The company has a market capitalization of $29.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.14, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $53.57 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $58.00. Xcel Energy Inc. has a one year low of $46.79 and a one year high of $70.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last announced its quarterly 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. The company had revenue of $3.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.12 billion. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 13.36% and a return on equity of 11.03%. Xcel Energy’s revenue was down 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.76 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $2.19 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.07%. This is a boost from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.