Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Acquires 60,374 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Key Points

• Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its Xcel Energy stake by 60,374 shares (a 3.1% rise) to 2,034,716 shares, representing about 0.34% of the company and valued at roughly $164.09 million.
• Wall Street maintains a consensus "Buy" on XEL with a consensus price target of $88.60, and individual price objectives from analysts ranging roughly $86–$95.
• Xcel raised its quarterly dividend to $0.5925 (annualized $2.37), a yield of about 2.9%, with an ex-dividend date of March 13 and payment on April 20.

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL - Free Report) by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,034,716 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 60,374 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned approximately 0.34% of Xcel Energy worth $164,086,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake 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 acquiring an additional 2,001,018 shares during the period. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S raised its stake in Xcel Energy by 86.6% during the 3rd quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 41,406 shares of the company's stock worth $3,339,000 after acquiring an additional 19,214 shares during the period. Cibc World Market Inc. purchased a new position in Xcel Energy during the third quarter valued at approximately $6,994,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. boosted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 2,324.9% in the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,716,351 shares of the company's stock worth $116,884,000 after purchasing an additional 1,645,571 shares during the period. Finally, VCI Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Xcel Energy in the third quarter worth approximately $1,176,000. Institutional investors own 78.38% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on XEL. Mizuho set a $86.00 price objective on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Argus raised shares of Xcel Energy to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Weiss Ratings lowered Xcel Energy from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research note on Thursday. BTIG Research set a $94.00 price objective on Xcel Energy in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Three research 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 issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Xcel Energy presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $88.60.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:XEL opened at $82.10 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $51.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.45. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $77.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $77.53. Xcel Energy Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $65.21 and a fifty-two week high of $84.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.71.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.96. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 13.76% and a return on equity of 10.46%. The company had revenue of $3.56 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.81 EPS. Xcel Energy's revenue for the quarter was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 20th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a $0.5925 dividend. This is an increase from Xcel Energy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Xcel Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 66.67%.

About Xcel Energy

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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