California Public Employees Retirement System Lowers Stock Holdings in Xcel Energy Inc. $XEL

California Public Employees Retirement System reduced its position in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 16.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,801,570 shares of the company’s stock after selling 364,521 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned 0.30% of Xcel Energy worth $145,297,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in Xcel Energy by 9.9% in the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia raised its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 25.5% during the third quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 101,568 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,191,000 after acquiring an additional 20,610 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 7.3% during the third quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 716,894 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,818,000 after acquiring an additional 48,890 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 21.3% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 365,291 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,461,000 after acquiring an additional 64,132 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 39.2% in the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 579,742 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,756,000 after acquiring an additional 163,337 shares during the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on XEL shares. KeyCorp reduced their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $85.00 to $84.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Xcel Energy from $90.00 to $87.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of Xcel Energy in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Barclays reduced their price objective on Xcel Energy from $85.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Argus set a $86.00 price objective on Xcel Energy in a report on Thursday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $88.44.

Xcel Energy Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of NASDAQ XEL opened at $81.91 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $78.41 and its 200 day moving average is $77.76. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52 week low of $65.21 and a 52 week high of $84.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. The company has a market cap of $51.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.95, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.45.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.96. The business had revenue of $3.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.77 billion. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 13.76% and a return on equity of 10.46%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.81 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.5925 per share. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. 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. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is currently 69.30%.

Key Stories Impacting Xcel Energy

Here are the key news stories impacting Xcel Energy this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts maintain a favorable view — XEL recently received an average “Buy” rating from analysts, which supports investor confidence. Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) Receives Average Rating of “Buy” from Analysts
• Positive Sentiment: Storm-response readiness highlighted — Xcel says crews are staged and ready to respond to outages from the winter storm, which reduces operational risk and limits potential outage duration. Workers ready to respond to outages during winter storm, Xcel Energy says
• Positive Sentiment: Planned logistics/maintenance underway — Xcel is moving equipment this weekend (with some traffic impacts), indicating proactive grid work to manage storm impacts. Xcel Energy moving equipment this weekend with impacts to traffic on I-25 near exit 243
• Neutral Sentiment: Safety outreach — Xcel and the American Red Cross published severe‑weather safety tips for customers; this is reputationally positive but not material to near‑term financials. Xcel Energy, American Red Cross offer tips to stay safe during severe weather
• Neutral Sentiment: Market performance context — commentary that XEL is outperforming the Nasdaq provides sentiment context but doesn’t change fundamentals. Is Xcel Energy stock outperforming the Nasdaq?
• Negative Sentiment: Environmental/operational risk — Xcel confirmed mineral oil leaked into the Mississippi River near the Monticello nuclear plant. Even if described as a “small amount,” the incident raises potential cleanup, regulatory and reputational costs. Xcel Energy confirms mineral oil leaked into Mississippi River near Monticello nuclear plant
• Negative Sentiment: Planned/preventive power shutoffs — Weather alerts indicate likely shutoffs that could affect tens of thousands of customers (reports cite ~43,000 at risk in Colorado), increasing short‑term customer disruption and outage-management costs. Xcel Energy: Power shutoff ‘likely’ Saturday in Boulder, Jefferson counties
• Negative Sentiment: Wider storm impacts in the Upper Midwest — Xcel warns of outages in Wisconsin and recent wind events left 20k+ Minnesota customers without power, signaling elevated storm-related operational costs across service territories. Xcel Energy warns of outages in Wisconsin amid forecasted snowstorm

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.