Meeder Advisory Services Inc. Takes $716,000 Position in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Meeder Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new stake in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 8,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $716,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC boosted its position in Xcel Energy by 18.1% during the fourth quarter. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC now owns 2,324,667 shares of the company’s stock worth $171,700,000 after purchasing an additional 356,208 shares during the period. PKO Investment Management Joint Stock Co bought a new position in shares of Xcel Energy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,477,000. Electron Capital Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 15.2% in the fourth quarter. Electron Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,936,695 shares of the company’s stock valued at $143,044,000 after purchasing an additional 255,884 shares during the period. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 13.1% in the fourth quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 3,579,918 shares of the company’s stock worth $264,413,000 after buying an additional 415,759 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,496,124 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,214,035,000 after buying an additional 126,498 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on XEL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Xcel Energy from $91.00 to $102.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Barclays increased their target price on Xcel Energy from $87.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Mizuho set a $92.00 target price on Xcel Energy in a report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their price target on Xcel Energy from $94.00 to $88.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $92.41.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

Xcel Energy stock opened at $78.71 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $79.41 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $79.72. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52-week low of $71.29 and a 52-week high of $84.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $49.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.39.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.14. Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 10.65% and a net margin of 15.28%.The firm had revenue of $3.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.54 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.59 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is currently 64.93%.

Xcel Energy 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.