Jennison Associates LLC Purchases 181,303 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Key Points

• Jennison Associates LLC boosted its Xcel Energy stake by 10.2% in Q4, buying 181,303 shares to hold 1,961,795 shares (about 0.33% of the company) worth roughly $144.9 million.
• Analysts are broadly positive with a consensus Buy rating and a $90.88 average price target; several firms (BMO, Barclays, Morgan Stanley) recently raised targets up to $94.
• Xcel reported Q1 EPS of $0.91 (in line) on $4.02B revenue (below the $4.19B estimate) and recently raised its quarterly dividend to $0.5925 ($2.37 annualized, ~2.9% yield).

Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL - Free Report) by 10.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,961,795 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 181,303 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC owned about 0.33% of Xcel Energy worth $144,898,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in XEL. ORG Partners LLC grew its stake in Xcel Energy by 168.4% in the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 314 shares of the company's stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new position in Xcel Energy in the 3rd quarter worth about $27,000. Abound Wealth Management grew its stake in Xcel Energy by 394.5% in the 4th quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 361 shares of the company's stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 288 shares in the last quarter. First Command Advisory Services Inc. bought a new position in Xcel Energy in the 3rd quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Beacon Financial Strategies CORP bought a new position in Xcel Energy in the 4th quarter worth about $33,000. 78.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

XEL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Mizuho set a $86.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley set a $92.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $82.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Argus set a $86.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $90.88.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

Shares of XEL opened at $81.02 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $50.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.43. Xcel Energy Inc. has a twelve month low of $65.21 and a twelve month high of $84.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. The company has a 50 day moving average of $80.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $78.70.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.91. The company had revenue of $4.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.19 billion. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 13.76% and a return on equity of 10.46%. Xcel Energy's revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.84 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th were paid a $0.5925 dividend. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. This is a positive change from Xcel Energy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 13th. Xcel Energy's payout ratio is 69.30%.

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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