Perigon Wealth Management LLC Acquires New Stake in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

Perigon Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 3,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $207,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Xcel Energy in the 1st quarter worth approximately $302,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 8.6% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,318,573 shares of the company’s stock worth $95,163,000 after buying an additional 104,140 shares in the last quarter. Prudential PLC purchased a new position in Xcel Energy during the first quarter valued at $1,385,000. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its holdings in Xcel Energy by 12.9% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 33,591 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,424,000 after acquiring an additional 3,836 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Xcel Energy by 8.8% in the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,775 shares of the company’s stock worth $272,000 after purchasing an additional 304 shares in the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wolfe Research upgraded Xcel Energy from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, March 11th. StockNews.com raised Xcel Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. KeyCorp increased their target price on Xcel Energy from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Xcel Energy from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Xcel Energy from $67.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $63.08.

Xcel Energy Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of XEL opened at $53.19 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $54.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.17. The company has a market cap of $29.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41. Xcel Energy Inc. has a twelve month low of $46.79 and a twelve month high of $71.32.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.85 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $3.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.01 billion. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 12.47% and a return on equity of 10.78%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.69 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, April 20th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.548 per share. This is a positive change from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.12%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 14th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.22%.

Xcel Energy 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.