BMO Capital Markets Issues Positive Forecast for Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) Stock Price

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) had its target price hoisted by BMO Capital Markets from $90.00 to $94.00 in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. BMO Capital Markets currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

XEL has been the topic of several other research reports. Mizuho set a $86.00 price target on shares of Xcel Energy in a report on Friday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley set a $92.00 price objective on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Tuesday. Truist Financial initiated coverage on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Monday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $95.00 price objective for the company. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Xcel Energy from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $90.12.

Xcel Energy Trading Down 1.2%

NASDAQ XEL opened at $78.11 on Wednesday. Xcel Energy has a one year low of $65.21 and a one year high of $84.23. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $80.78 and its 200 day moving average price is $78.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.84, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.43.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.96. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 13.76% and a return on equity of 10.46%. The firm had revenue of $3.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.81 earnings per share. Xcel Energy’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Xcel Energy will post 4.11 EPS for the current year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 20th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th were paid a $0.5925 dividend. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. This is a positive change from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 13th. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is presently 69.30%.

Institutional Trading of Xcel Energy

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in XEL. Barclays PLC grew its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 63.6% during the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 9,979,397 shares of the company’s stock worth $737,078,000 after buying an additional 3,881,011 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 16.9% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 24,572,438 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,814,920,000 after buying an additional 3,546,423 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 9.9% during the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 28,851,485 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,326,872,000 after buying an additional 2,589,406 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 37.1% during the first quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 8,871,863 shares of the company’s stock worth $704,780,000 after buying an additional 2,399,089 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Xcel Energy by 2.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 76,725,720 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,187,929,000 after buying an additional 2,001,018 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

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.