Pacer Advisors Inc. Acquires 37,131 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 47.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 115,016 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 37,131 shares during the quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $7,121,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in XEL. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 15.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,062,856 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,665,677,000 after purchasing an additional 8,644,054 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Xcel Energy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $576,873,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Xcel Energy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $231,020,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in Xcel Energy by 16.0% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 18,521,863 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,059,821,000 after buying an additional 2,559,321 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in Xcel Energy by 165.3% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,899,289 shares of the company’s stock worth $133,159,000 after acquiring an additional 1,183,298 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on XEL. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. TheStreet downgraded shares of Xcel Energy from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. StockNews.com upgraded Xcel Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Barclays upgraded Xcel Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $61.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Monday, March 11th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Xcel Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $63.08.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

Shares of XEL stock opened at $53.38 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $56.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $58.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.72. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52-week low of $46.79 and a 52-week high of $71.96.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The company reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.85 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $3.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.01 billion. Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 10.78% and a net margin of 12.47%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.69 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, April 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be paid a $0.548 dividend. This is an increase from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 14th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.