M&T Bank Corp Purchases 52,137 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Key Points

• M&T Bank Corp increased its stake in Xcel Energy by 86.5% in Q4, buying 52,137 shares to hold 112,418 shares valued at about $8.30 million.
• Institutional ownership is high at 78.38%, with large investors like Vanguard (76.7M shares), State Street, Bank of America, JPMorgan and MFS all recently boosting positions.
• Analysts have a consensus "Buy" rating on XEL with an average price target of $90.88, and the company recently raised its quarterly dividend to $0.5925 (annualized $2.37) for a ~3.0% yield.

M&T Bank Corp lifted its position in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL - Free Report) by 86.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 112,418 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 52,137 shares during the quarter. M&T Bank Corp's holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $8,303,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 2.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 76,725,720 shares of the company's stock worth $6,187,929,000 after purchasing an additional 2,001,018 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 5.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 35,896,553 shares of the company's stock worth $2,914,984,000 after acquiring an additional 1,752,296 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in 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 valued at $2,326,872,000 after acquiring an additional 2,589,406 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Xcel Energy by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 21,026,015 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,695,748,000 after acquiring an additional 831,639 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in 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 valued at $1,574,842,000 after acquiring an additional 807,353 shares in the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on XEL shares. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Xcel Energy from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research report on Friday, March 20th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $89.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Truist Financial started coverage on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Monday. They issued a "buy" rating and a $95.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $82.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $90.88.

Xcel Energy Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of XEL stock opened at $79.15 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 1 year low of $65.21 and a 1 year high of $84.23. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $80.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $78.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $49.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.14, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.43.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL - Get Free Report) last issued 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 net margin of 13.76% and a return on equity of 10.46%. The firm had revenue of $3.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.81 EPS. The company's revenue was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The firm 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. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 13th. This is an increase from Xcel Energy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Xcel Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 69.30%.

Xcel Energy Company 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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