HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC Has $94.33 Million Stock Position in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 41.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,169,573 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 341,699 shares during the period. Xcel Energy accounts for approximately 5.1% of HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $94,326,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Xcel Energy by 2.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 76,725,720 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,187,929,000 after acquiring an additional 2,001,018 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 34,144,257 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,344,295,000 after purchasing an additional 126,790 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 9.0% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 26,262,079 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,788,448,000 after purchasing an additional 2,157,602 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 21,026,015 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,695,748,000 after purchasing an additional 831,639 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 19,526,873 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,574,842,000 after purchasing an additional 807,353 shares during the period. 78.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on XEL shares. Mizuho set a $86.00 price target on Xcel Energy in a report on Friday, January 9th. Argus set a $86.00 price objective on Xcel Energy in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group raised Xcel Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $81.00 to $89.00 in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Xcel Energy from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, BTIG Research set a $94.00 target price on Xcel Energy in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $88.44.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

Shares of XEL stock opened at $80.82 on Friday. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52 week low of $65.21 and a 52 week high of $84.23. The company has a market capitalization of $50.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.63, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $78.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of $77.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.71.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.96. The firm had revenue of $3.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.77 billion. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 13.76% and a return on equity of 10.46%. The business’s revenue was up 14.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.81 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.5925 per share. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. This is an increase from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 69.30%.

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.