Leeward Investments LLC MA Cuts Stock Position in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Key Points

• Leeward Investments LLC MA cut its Xcel Energy stake by 22.6% in the fourth quarter, selling 31,447 shares and ending with 107,572 shares valued at about $7.95 million.
• Despite that reduction, institutional ownership remains very high: hedge funds and other institutions own about 78.38% of Xcel Energy, and several large firms such as Vanguard, State Street, and Bank of America increased their positions.
• Xcel Energy reported Q1 earnings of $0.91 per share, matching analyst expectations, and raised its quarterly dividend to $0.5925 per share, implying an annualized yield of about 3.0%.

Leeward Investments LLC MA lowered its stake in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL - Free Report) by 22.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 107,572 shares of the company's stock after selling 31,447 shares during the period. Leeward Investments LLC MA's holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $7,945,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 77,610,805 shares of the company's stock worth $5,732,334,000 after buying an additional 885,085 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 5.1% in 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 last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 9.9% in 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 last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 21,026,015 shares of the company's stock worth $1,695,748,000 after buying an additional 831,639 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 19,526,873 shares of the company's stock worth $1,574,842,000 after buying an additional 807,353 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.38% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

XEL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley set a $92.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. BTIG Research set a $94.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Argus set a $86.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $95.00 target price on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, Truist Financial initiated coverage on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Monday, April 20th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $95.00 target price on the stock. Four investment 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $91.13.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

XEL opened at $77.92 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $48.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.41. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $80.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $78.67. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52-week low of $65.21 and a 52-week high of $84.23.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.91. The business had revenue of $4.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.21 billion. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 14.14% and a return on equity of 10.37%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.84 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th were given a $0.5925 dividend. This is a boost from Xcel Energy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. Xcel Energy's payout ratio is presently 68.30%.

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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