FourThought Financial Partners LLC Reduces Position in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

FourThought Financial Partners LLC decreased its position in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 15.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 14,412 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,615 shares during the period. FourThought Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $892,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 0.4% in the third quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 114,309 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,541,000 after acquiring an additional 403 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates boosted its holdings in Xcel Energy by 37.1% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 313,072 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,914,000 after purchasing an additional 84,670 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its position in Xcel Energy by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 131,502 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,525,000 after purchasing an additional 6,194 shares during the period. Bailard Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Xcel Energy during the 3rd quarter valued at about $601,000. Finally, Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. lifted its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. now owns 269,055 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,395,000 after buying an additional 7,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

XEL has been the subject of several recent research reports. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Xcel Energy from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. TheStreet cut shares of Xcel Energy from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Xcel Energy from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Xcel Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Xcel Energy currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $62.83.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

Xcel Energy stock traded up $0.46 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $54.25. The company had a trading volume of 3,285,090 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,238,203. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.74. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 12-month low of $46.79 and a 12-month high of $69.85. The company has a market capitalization of $30.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.29, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.36. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $53.24 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.89.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $0.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.08. Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 11.03% and a net margin of 13.36%. The business had revenue of $3.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.12 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.76 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, April 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.548 per share. This is a positive change from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $2.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.04%. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 65.77%.

Xcel Energy Company Profile

Xcel Energy Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, purchasing, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity. It operates through Regulated Electric Utility, Regulated Natural Gas Utility, and All Other segments. The company generates electricity through wind, nuclear, hydroelectric, biomass, and solar energy sources, as well as coal, natural gas, oil, wood, and refuse-derived fuels.