Legal & General Group Plc Invests $503.54 Million in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Key Points

• Legal & General Group Plc acquired 6.27 million Xcel Energy shares worth approximately $503.5 million, giving it about a 1% stake. Institutional investors collectively own 78.38% of the utility.
• Analysts maintain a broadly positive outlook, with a consensus “Buy” rating and an average price target of $92.41, despite some analysts lowering targets or issuing a sell rating.
• Xcel Energy beat quarterly EPS expectations with $0.93 versus the $0.79 consensus, though revenue fell 5.1% year over year. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.5925, equivalent to a 3.1% annual yield.

Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 6,270,777 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $503,543,000. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 1.00% of Xcel Energy as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Xcel Energy in the 4th quarter valued at about $240,000. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 30.7% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 13,810 shares of the company's stock valued at $978,000 after acquiring an additional 3,242 shares during the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP grew its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 40.7% during the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 48,515 shares of the company's stock worth $3,434,000 after purchasing an additional 14,029 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 4.8% during the second quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 10,193 shares of the company's stock worth $694,000 after purchasing an additional 469 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cary Street Partners Financial LLC increased its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 16.0% in the second quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC now owns 2,620 shares of the company's stock worth $178,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.38% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

XEL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Xcel Energy from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Xcel Energy from $92.00 to $89.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group set a $101.00 price target on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. KeyCorp restated an "overweight" rating on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Mizuho set a $92.00 price objective on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Friday, July 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $92.41.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ XEL opened at $77.33 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $48.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 1-year low of $71.29 and a 1-year high of $84.23. The stock's 50-day moving average is $79.31 and its 200 day moving average is $79.74.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $3.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.54 billion. Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 10.65% and a net margin of 15.28%.Xcel Energy's revenue for the quarter was down 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.59 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 20th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be paid a $0.5925 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. Xcel Energy's dividend payout ratio is 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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