Geneos Wealth Management Inc. Sells 12,653 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Key Points

• Geneos Wealth Management cut its stake in Xcel Energy by 31.3%, selling 12,653 shares in Q4 and leaving it with 27,737 shares worth about $2.05 million.
• Several large institutions — including Bank of America, Barclays, Vanguard and State Street — have been adding to XEL, leaving institutional ownership at about 78.38%.
• Analysts are broadly bullish with a consensus Buy rating and an average price target of $90.88, and Xcel recently raised its quarterly dividend to $0.5925 (annualized $2.37) for roughly a 3.0% yield.

Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL - Free Report) by 31.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 27,737 shares of the company's stock after selling 12,653 shares during the quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc.'s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $2,049,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in XEL. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in Xcel Energy by 9.9% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 28,851,485 shares of the company's stock worth $2,326,872,000 after buying an additional 2,589,406 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its stake in Xcel Energy by 54.3% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 6,098,386 shares of the company's stock worth $491,835,000 after buying an additional 2,145,063 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Xcel Energy by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 76,725,720 shares of the company's stock worth $6,187,929,000 after buying an additional 2,001,018 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in Xcel Energy by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 35,896,553 shares of the company's stock worth $2,914,984,000 after buying an additional 1,752,296 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. raised its stake in Xcel Energy by 100.3% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 2,519,061 shares of the company's stock worth $171,548,000 after buying an additional 1,261,439 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.38% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on XEL shares. Mizuho set a $86.00 price objective on Xcel Energy in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Truist Financial started coverage on Xcel Energy in a research note on Monday, April 20th. They set a "buy" rating and a $95.00 price objective on the stock. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Xcel Energy from $89.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Xcel Energy from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on Xcel Energy from $82.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $90.88.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

XEL opened at $79.15 on Friday. The business's 50-day moving average price is $80.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $78.75. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 1 year low of $65.21 and a 1 year high of $84.23. The company has a market capitalization of $49.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.60.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.96. Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 10.46% and a net margin of 13.76%.The firm had revenue of $3.56 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.81 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 14.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th were paid a $0.5925 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. This is a positive change from Xcel Energy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Xcel Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 69.30%.

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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