Jennison Associates LLC Sells 40,312 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Jennison Associates LLC cut its holdings in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 2.1% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,921,483 shares of the company’s stock after selling 40,312 shares during the quarter. Jennison Associates LLC’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $152,643,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 77,610,805 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,732,334,000 after purchasing an additional 885,085 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,340,645 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,704,534,000 after purchasing an additional 444,092 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 9.0% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 26,262,079 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,788,448,000 after purchasing an additional 2,157,602 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 16.9% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 24,572,438 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,814,920,000 after purchasing an additional 3,546,423 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Xcel Energy by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,496,124 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,214,035,000 after purchasing an additional 126,498 shares in the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

NASDAQ XEL opened at $78.77 on Friday. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 1 year low of $69.16 and a 1 year high of $84.23. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $79.56 and a 200 day simple moving average of $79.05. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45. The company has a market cap of $49.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.39.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.91. The firm had revenue of $4.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.21 billion. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 14.14% and a return on equity of 10.37%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.84 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current year.

Xcel Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 20th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be given a $0.5925 dividend. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.30%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on XEL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $91.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Xcel Energy from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group set a $101.00 price target on Xcel Energy in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and set a $98.00 price objective on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Friday, June 26th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on Xcel Energy from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Xcel Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $92.76.

Xcel Energy Profile

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.