abrdn plc Sells 526 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

abrdn plc trimmed its stake in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 0.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 128,871 shares of the company’s stock after selling 526 shares during the period. abrdn plc’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $7,978,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Xcel Energy by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 298,074 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,448,000 after purchasing an additional 7,679 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Xcel Energy by 47.7% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 115,016 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,121,000 after buying an additional 37,131 shares during the period. Seven Eight Capital LP increased its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 930.5% in the third quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP now owns 45,918 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,627,000 after acquiring an additional 41,462 shares in the last quarter. First Bank & Trust grew its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 66.8% during the fourth quarter. First Bank & Trust now owns 70,404 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,359,000 after buying an additional 28,187 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 15.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,062,856 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,665,677,000 after buying an additional 8,644,054 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 recently issued reports 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 report on Monday, March 11th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Xcel Energy from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Xcel Energy from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. KeyCorp reduced their price target on Xcel Energy from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, TheStreet cut Xcel Energy from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Xcel Energy currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.58.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

XEL opened at $53.96 on Friday. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 12-month low of $46.79 and a 12-month high of $70.72. The stock has a market cap of $29.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.81, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.36. The business has a 50 day moving average of $53.77 and a 200-day moving average of $58.07. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.08. Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 10.78% and a net margin of 12.47%. The company had revenue of $3.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.12 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.76 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, April 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.548 dividend. This represents a $2.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.06%. This is a boost from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.