Stephens Inc. AR Has $509,000 Holdings in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

Stephens Inc. AR lessened its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 3.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,540 shares of the company’s stock after selling 249 shares during the period. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $509,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in XEL. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 6.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 37,143,025 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,445,477,000 after acquiring an additional 2,323,448 shares in the last quarter. Brookfield Corp ON boosted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 520.1% during the 3rd quarter. Brookfield Corp ON now owns 2,509,031 shares of the company’s stock worth $163,840,000 after acquiring an additional 2,104,405 shares in the last quarter. Merewether Investment Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Xcel Energy during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $64,301,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 15,190,756 shares of the company’s stock worth $991,956,000 after acquiring an additional 892,740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 1,265.6% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 839,146 shares of the company’s stock worth $54,797,000 after acquiring an additional 777,696 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

XEL has been the subject of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Xcel Energy from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $69.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $74.00 to $79.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $74.00 to $72.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Xcel Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $71.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $69.91.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

XEL stock opened at $68.61 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $67.07 and a 200-day moving average price of $65.19. The company has a market capitalization of $39.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.94, a PEG ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.43. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52-week low of $46.79 and a 52-week high of $73.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.93.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by ($0.06). Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 10.65% and a net margin of 14.40%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.82 EPS for the current year.

Xcel Energy Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Investors of record on Monday, January 6th were paid a dividend of $0.5475 per share. This represents a $2.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.19%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, January 6th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 63.66%.

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.