Wealthfront Advisers LLC Buys New Holdings in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Wealthfront Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 146,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,790,000.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Xcel Energy by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 77,610,805 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,732,334,000 after purchasing an additional 885,085 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Xcel Energy during the second quarter valued at approximately $4,890,136,000. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,340,645 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,704,534,000 after purchasing an additional 444,092 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 5.9% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 29,441,811 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,338,858,000 after purchasing an additional 1,637,890 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 16.9% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 24,572,438 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,814,920,000 after buying an additional 3,546,423 shares during the period. 78.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

Shares of Xcel Energy stock opened at $79.17 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $79.37 and a 200 day moving average of $79.68. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52 week low of $71.29 and a 52 week high of $84.23. The company has a market cap of $49.45 billion, a PE ratio of 21.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $3.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.54 billion. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 15.28% and a return on equity of 10.65%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.59 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Xcel Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 20th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.5925 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is presently 64.93%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on XEL. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Xcel Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. New Street Research set a $91.00 price target on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $94.00 to $88.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $87.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $89.00 target price on Xcel Energy in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $92.41.

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.