Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) Shares Sold by Bigelow Investment Advisors LLC

Bigelow Investment Advisors LLC lowered its position in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 8.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,801 shares of the company’s stock after selling 734 shares during the period. Bigelow Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $483,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Xcel Energy in the first quarter valued at $302,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Xcel Energy by 8.6% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,318,573 shares of the company’s stock valued at $95,163,000 after acquiring an additional 104,140 shares in the last quarter. Prudential PLC acquired a new position in Xcel Energy during the first quarter worth about $1,385,000. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 12.9% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 33,591 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,424,000 after purchasing an additional 3,836 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 8.8% during the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,775 shares of the company’s stock worth $272,000 after purchasing an additional 304 shares in the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

XEL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded Xcel Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Xcel Energy from $67.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. KeyCorp reduced their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. TheStreet downgraded shares of Xcel Energy from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, Barclays raised shares of Xcel Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $61.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Monday, March 11th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $62.83.

Xcel Energy Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:XEL traded up $0.96 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $54.72. 4,477,449 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,425,010. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $54.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.14. The firm has a market cap of $30.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.75, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.72. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52-week low of $46.79 and a 52-week high of $71.32.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $3.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.01 billion. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 12.47% and a return on equity of 10.78%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.69 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, April 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.548 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 14th. This is an increase from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.19 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.01%. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is currently 68.22%.

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.