Evercore ISI Lowers Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) Price Target to $62.00

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) had its price objective cut by stock analysts at Evercore ISI from $66.00 to $62.00 in a report released on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the stock. Evercore ISI’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 6.95% from the stock’s current price.

XEL has been the topic of a number of other research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Xcel Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $79.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Friday, June 2nd. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $64.00 to $59.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 23rd. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $72.00 to $69.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 30th. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of Xcel Energy in a research note on Thursday, August 24th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $60.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Wolfe Research lowered Xcel Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Friday, June 2nd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $66.79.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

Shares of XEL opened at $57.97 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $31.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $60.11 and a 200 day moving average of $64.61. Xcel Energy has a twelve month low of $55.11 and a twelve month high of $74.59.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.57 by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.38 billion. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 11.38% and a return on equity of 10.39%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Xcel Energy will post 3.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Xcel Energy

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in XEL. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in Xcel Energy during the fourth quarter worth $576,873,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Xcel Energy in the 4th quarter valued at $231,020,000. Strategic Wealth Investment Group LLC grew its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 90,544.8% in the 1st quarter. Strategic Wealth Investment Group LLC now owns 3,219,705 shares of the company’s stock valued at $240,000 after buying an additional 3,216,153 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 50,043,375 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,611,630,000 after buying an additional 1,263,127 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its stake in Xcel Energy by 165.3% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,899,289 shares of the company’s stock worth $133,159,000 after buying an additional 1,183,298 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.83% of the company’s stock.

About Xcel Energy

Xcel Energy Inc, through its subsidiaries, generates, purchases, transmits, distributes, and sells electricity. It operates through Regulated Electric Utility, Regulated Natural Gas Utility, and All Other segments. The company generates electricity through coal, nuclear, natural gas, hydroelectric, solar, biomass, oil, wood/refuse, and wind energy sources.