15,855 Shares in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL Purchased by Sapient Capital LLC

Key Points

• Sapient Capital LLC acquired 15,855 Xcel Energy shares in the second quarter, valued at approximately $1.27 million. Institutional investors collectively own 78.38% of the company.
• Analysts remain broadly optimistic, with Xcel carrying an average “Buy” rating and a consensus price target of $92.76.
• Xcel reported quarterly EPS of $0.93, beating estimates of $0.79, though revenue fell 5.1% year over year. The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.5925 per share, representing a 3.1% annualized yield.

Sapient Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 15,855 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,274,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in XEL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Xcel Energy by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 77,610,805 shares of the company's stock worth $5,732,334,000 after acquiring an additional 885,085 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,340,645 shares of the company's stock worth $2,704,534,000 after buying an additional 444,092 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in Xcel Energy by 5.9% in the first 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 during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 16.9% during the fourth 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 during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,496,124 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,214,035,000 after buying an additional 126,498 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.38% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on XEL. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on Xcel Energy from $95.00 to $92.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. KeyCorp reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Monday, June 8th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $101.00 target price on Xcel Energy in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Evercore reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $96.00 price target on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $92.76.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

Xcel Energy stock opened at $76.87 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $79.27 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $79.56. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49. Xcel Energy Inc. has a twelve month low of $69.16 and a twelve month high of $84.23. The company has a market capitalization of $48.02 billion, a PE ratio of 21.06, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.39.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $3.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.54 billion. Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 10.65% and a net margin of 15.28%.The company's quarterly revenue was down 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.59 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current year.

Xcel Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 20th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.5925 per share. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 15th. Xcel Energy's dividend payout ratio is currently 64.93%.

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.

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