Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL Position Reduced by First National Bank of Omaha

First National Bank of Omaha cut its position in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 7.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 103,281 shares of the company’s stock after selling 8,584 shares during the quarter. First National Bank of Omaha’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $7,628,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of XEL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Xcel Energy by 16.9% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 24,572,438 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,814,920,000 after buying an additional 3,546,423 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in Xcel Energy by 9.9% during the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 28,851,485 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,326,872,000 after buying an additional 2,589,406 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in Xcel Energy by 54.3% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 6,098,386 shares of the company’s stock valued at $491,835,000 after buying an additional 2,145,063 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Xcel Energy by 2.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 76,725,720 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,187,929,000 after buying an additional 2,001,018 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its stake in Xcel Energy by 4,530.7% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,024,541 shares of the company’s stock valued at $149,538,000 after buying an additional 1,980,821 shares in the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on XEL. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $95.00 to $92.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $94.00 to $91.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Argus set a $86.00 price objective on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $87.00 price target on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $90.63.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

NASDAQ XEL opened at $79.22 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $79.74 and a 200-day simple moving average of $78.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $49.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.39. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52-week low of $65.21 and a 52-week high of $84.23.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91. The business had revenue of $4.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.21 billion. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 14.14% and a return on equity of 10.37%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.84 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 20th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be given a dividend of $0.5925 per share. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.30%.

About Xcel Energy

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.