146,829 Shares in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL Bought by Wealthfront Advisers LLC

Wealthfront Advisers LLC bought a new position in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 146,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,790,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of XEL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Xcel Energy by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 77,610,805 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,732,334,000 after purchasing an additional 885,085 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Xcel Energy during the second quarter valued at approximately $4,890,136,000. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,340,645 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,704,534,000 after purchasing an additional 444,092 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 29,441,811 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,338,858,000 after purchasing an additional 1,637,890 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 16.9% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 24,572,438 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,814,920,000 after purchasing an additional 3,546,423 shares in the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Xcel Energy Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of NASDAQ XEL opened at $79.17 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $79.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $79.68. The company has a market cap of $49.45 billion, a PE ratio of 21.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.39. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52-week low of $71.29 and a 52-week high of $84.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.70.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.14. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 15.28% and a return on equity of 10.65%. The company had revenue of $3.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.54 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.59 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 20th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.5925 per share. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 15th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 64.93%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on Xcel Energy from $94.00 to $88.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. Mizuho set a $92.00 target price on Xcel Energy in a report on Friday, July 31st. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $101.00 price target on Xcel Energy in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price 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.