E Fund Management Co. Ltd. Buys New Shares in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

E Fund Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund purchased 24,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,930,000.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in XEL. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Xcel Energy by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 77,610,805 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,732,334,000 after acquiring an additional 885,085 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Xcel Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at about $4,890,136,000. State Street Corp grew its position 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 acquiring an additional 444,092 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 5.9% during the 1st 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. raised its holdings 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 period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Monday, June 8th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Xcel Energy from $95.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Wall Street Zen lowered Xcel Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Barclays increased their price target on Xcel Energy from $87.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Wednesday, June 17th. Two 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.com, Xcel Energy has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $92.41.

Xcel Energy Stock Up 0.3%

NASDAQ XEL opened at $79.41 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 1-year low of $71.29 and a 1-year high of $84.23. The company has a 50 day moving average of $79.40 and a 200-day moving average of $79.70. The company has a market cap of $49.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.76, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.39.

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

Xcel Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 20th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th 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 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is presently 64.93%.

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.