GAMMA Investing LLC Invests $459,000 in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 7,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $459,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 15.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,062,856 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,665,677,000 after buying an additional 8,644,054 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 16.0% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 18,521,863 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,059,821,000 after buying an additional 2,559,321 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 8.4% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 7,504,622 shares of the company’s stock valued at $429,414,000 after buying an additional 583,318 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 1.6% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,739,186 shares of the company’s stock valued at $328,396,000 after buying an additional 90,819 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Xcel Energy by 11.6% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,303,047 shares of the company’s stock worth $303,440,000 after purchasing an additional 550,508 shares in the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wolfe Research raised Xcel Energy from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, March 11th. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on Xcel Energy from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. TheStreet cut Xcel Energy from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Barclays raised Xcel Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $61.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Monday, March 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Xcel Energy from $68.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.83.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

XEL traded up $0.22 on Wednesday, hitting $55.49. 1,724,178 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,350,745. The company has a 50 day moving average of $54.02 and a 200-day moving average of $58.14. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.82 billion, a PE ratio of 17.22, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.36. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 12-month low of $46.79 and a 12-month high of $71.32.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.85 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $3.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.01 billion. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 12.47% and a return on equity of 10.78%. The firm’s revenue was down 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.69 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, April 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.548 per share. This represents a $2.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.95%. This is an increase from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Xcel Energy’s dividend 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.