Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA Grows Stake in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA lifted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 226.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 42,354 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 29,376 shares during the period. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $3,128,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 2,589,406 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 54.3% in 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 during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 2.7% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 35,896,553 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,914,984,000 after buying an additional 1,752,296 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 29.0% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,366,422 shares of the company’s stock worth $501,653,000 after acquiring an additional 1,654,505 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

Shares of XEL opened at $76.77 on Friday. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52-week low of $65.21 and a 52-week high of $84.23. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $79.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $77.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $47.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.45.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96. Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 10.46% and a net margin of 13.76%.The business had revenue of $3.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.81 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 20th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.5925 per share. This is an increase from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 69.30%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

XEL has been the subject of several recent research reports. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on Xcel Energy from $85.00 to $84.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley set a $91.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Friday, February 20th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Xcel Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $81.00 to $89.00 in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $95.00 price target on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Xcel Energy from $90.00 to $87.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $88.44.

Xcel Energy Company 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.