Donaldson Capital Management LLC Invests $204,000 in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

Donaldson Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 3,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Quilter Plc bought a new position in Xcel Energy in the 1st quarter valued at $255,201,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL acquired a new stake in Xcel Energy in the first quarter worth about $27,000. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Xcel Energy during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Capital Analysts LLC boosted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 293.6% in the 4th quarter. Capital Analysts LLC now owns 433 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 323 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royal London Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in Xcel Energy during the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on XEL shares. StockNews.com upgraded Xcel Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Xcel Energy from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, March 11th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Xcel Energy from $67.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Xcel Energy from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Barclays upgraded Xcel Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $61.00 to $54.00 in a report on Monday, March 11th. 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.com, Xcel Energy has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $63.08.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

NASDAQ:XEL opened at $52.53 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.72. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $54.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.20. The company has a market cap of $29.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.36. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52-week low of $46.79 and a 52-week high of $71.32.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $3.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.01 billion. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 12.47% and a return on equity of 10.78%. Xcel Energy’s revenue was down 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.69 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, April 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be given a dividend of $0.548 per share. This represents a $2.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.17%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 14th. This is an increase from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is 68.22%.

Xcel Energy 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.