Brookstone Capital Management Buys 6,339 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

Brookstone Capital Management raised its stake in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 98.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 12,746 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,339 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $941,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. raised its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. now owns 220,952 shares of the company’s stock valued at $16,320,000 after buying an additional 3,097 shares in the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Xcel Energy during the 4th quarter worth approximately $149,000. Donaldson Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Xcel Energy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,992,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Xcel Energy by 37.1% in the fourth quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 47,946 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,541,000 after acquiring an additional 12,979 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goelzer Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Xcel Energy by 23.7% during the fourth quarter. Goelzer Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,486 shares of the company’s stock valued at $553,000 after purchasing an additional 1,436 shares in the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on XEL shares. KeyCorp decreased their price target on Xcel Energy from $85.00 to $84.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Barclays dropped their price objective on Xcel Energy from $85.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Morgan Stanley set a $91.00 target price on Xcel Energy in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Weiss Ratings raised Xcel Energy from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $90.00 to $87.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Xcel Energy currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $88.44.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

XEL stock opened at $80.74 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $79.67 and a 200-day moving average price of $78.43. The company has a market capitalization of $50.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.61, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.43. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52-week low of $65.21 and a 52-week high of $84.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.71.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96. The company had revenue of $3.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.77 billion. Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 10.46% and a net margin of 13.76%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.81 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.82 EPS for the current year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $0.5925 per share. This is a positive change from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is 69.30%.

Xcel Energy Company Profile

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ: XEL) is a Minneapolis-based, publicly traded utility holding company that develops, owns and operates regulated electricity and natural gas delivery systems. The company’s core activities include generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, the delivery of natural gas to customers, and related customer service operations. Xcel provides a mix of utility services to residential, commercial and industrial customers and participates in wholesale energy markets where appropriate.

Its generation portfolio combines nuclear, natural gas, coal and a growing share of renewable resources such as wind and solar.