The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Purchases New Position in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new position in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 617,452 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $49,581,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Xcel Energy in the second quarter valued at approximately $4,890,136,000. GQG Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Xcel Energy during the 2nd quarter worth $891,688,000. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC acquired a new position in shares of Xcel Energy during the 2nd quarter worth $708,086,000. Deutsche Bank AG bought a new position in shares of Xcel Energy during the 2nd quarter valued at $433,927,000. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 63.6% during the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 9,979,397 shares of the company’s stock valued at $737,078,000 after purchasing an additional 3,881,011 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

NASDAQ XEL opened at $77.68 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. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $79.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $79.76. The company has a market cap of $48.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 0.39. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 1 year low of $71.29 and a 1 year high of $84.23.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $3.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.54 billion. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 15.28% and a return on equity of 10.65%. Xcel Energy’s revenue was down 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.59 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.12 EPS for the current year.

Xcel Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 20th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be given a $0.5925 dividend. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 64.93%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on XEL shares. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $95.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $96.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $101.00 target price on Xcel Energy in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Wall Street Zen cut Xcel Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Monday, June 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Xcel Energy presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $92.41.

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.