Vestor Capital LLC Sells 621 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

Vestor Capital LLC cut its position in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 26.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,771 shares of the company’s stock after selling 621 shares during the period. Vestor Capital LLC’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $110,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Xcel Energy by 15.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,062,856 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,665,677,000 after buying an additional 8,644,054 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 16.0% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 18,521,863 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,059,821,000 after purchasing an additional 2,559,321 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 216.1% during the third quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 1,627,320 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,981,000 after purchasing an additional 1,112,510 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 184.9% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,451,483 shares of the company’s stock valued at $89,861,000 after purchasing an additional 942,097 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. raised its position in Xcel Energy by 247.8% in the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,284,305 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,511,000 after purchasing an additional 915,046 shares during the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on XEL. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Xcel Energy from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Xcel Energy from $68.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. TheStreet cut shares of Xcel Energy from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Xcel Energy from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $62.83.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

Shares of XEL traded up $0.31 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $55.24. 4,350,946 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,315,395. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $53.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $57.81. Xcel Energy Inc. has a twelve month low of $46.79 and a twelve month high of $69.71. The company has a market cap of $30.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.59, a PEG ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.36.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.08. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 13.36% and a return on equity of 11.03%. The firm had revenue of $3.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.12 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.76 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, April 20th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.548 per share. This is a boost from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $2.19 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.97%. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 65.77%.

Xcel Energy Company Profile

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.