Royal Bank of Canada Buys 198,157 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Royal Bank of Canada lifted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 5.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,872,314 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 198,157 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada owned 0.62% of Xcel Energy worth $307,617,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new position in shares of Xcel Energy during the fourth quarter worth $240,000. Empowered Funds LLC increased its holdings in Xcel Energy by 30.7% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 13,810 shares of the company’s stock worth $978,000 after purchasing an additional 3,242 shares in the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP raised its position in Xcel Energy by 40.7% in the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 48,515 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,434,000 after purchasing an additional 14,029 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its position in Xcel Energy by 4.8% in the second quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 10,193 shares of the company’s stock valued at $694,000 after purchasing an additional 469 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cary Street Partners Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 16.0% during the second quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC now owns 2,620 shares of the company’s stock valued at $178,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley set a $89.00 price target on Xcel Energy in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted 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, July 16th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $101.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Barclays raised their price target 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, New Street Research set a $91.00 price objective on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Xcel Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $92.65.

Xcel Energy Stock Down 2.0%

Xcel Energy stock opened at $78.75 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $49.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.69, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.39. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52-week low of $69.16 and a 52-week high of $84.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.77. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $79.64 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $79.42.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.91. The company had revenue of $4.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.21 billion. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 14.14% and a return on equity of 10.37%. Xcel Energy’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. Equities 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 Tuesday, October 20th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.5925 per share. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 15th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.30%.

Xcel Energy Company 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.