Brown Financial Advisors Buys Shares of 12,869 Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

Brown Financial Advisors purchased a new position in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 12,869 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $687,000.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 33.8% in the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 143,573 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,668,000 after buying an additional 36,229 shares during the last quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC purchased a new stake in Xcel Energy in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $204,000. Truist Financial Corp raised its holdings in Xcel Energy by 63.2% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 230,761 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,325,000 after acquiring an additional 89,396 shares during the last quarter. Kimelman & Baird LLC purchased a new position in shares of Xcel Energy during the 2nd quarter worth $35,000. Finally, Gateway Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 4.3% during the second quarter. Gateway Wealth Partners LLC now owns 4,413 shares of the company’s stock worth $236,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on XEL. UBS Group upped their target price on Xcel Energy from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Thursday, September 19th. They set a “hold” rating and a $70.00 price objective on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Xcel Energy from $68.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $64.36.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:XEL opened at $65.32 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $61.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.59. The company has a market cap of $36.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.62, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.97. Xcel Energy Inc. has a one year low of $46.79 and a one year high of $65.64.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $3.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.29 billion. Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 10.94% and a net margin of 13.46%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.52 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, October 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be given a dividend of $0.548 per share. This represents a $2.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.36%. This is a positive change from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is presently 65.77%.

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.