Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) Rating Lowered to Sell at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note published on Saturday morning.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on the stock. Wolfe Research raised shares of Xcel Energy from a peer perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $58.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 11th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Xcel Energy from $67.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. KeyCorp reduced their target price on Xcel Energy from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Xcel Energy from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Barclays upgraded Xcel Energy from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $61.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Monday, March 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $62.83.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

NASDAQ:XEL opened at $54.72 on Friday. Xcel Energy has a 12 month low of $46.79 and a 12 month high of $71.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.40 billion, a PE ratio of 17.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.36. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $54.16 and its 200 day moving average price is $58.15.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last issued 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 analyst estimates of $4.01 billion. Xcel Energy had a return on equity of 10.78% and a net margin of 12.47%. Xcel Energy’s revenue was down 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.69 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Xcel Energy will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, April 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.548 per share. This represents a $2.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.01%. This is a positive change from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is 68.22%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Xcel Energy by 15.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,062,856 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,665,677,000 after buying an additional 8,644,054 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Xcel Energy in the 4th quarter worth approximately $576,873,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Xcel Energy in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $231,020,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in Xcel Energy by 16.0% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 18,521,863 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,059,821,000 after purchasing an additional 2,559,321 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in Xcel Energy by 44.9% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,795,768 shares of the company’s stock worth $420,726,000 after purchasing an additional 2,105,005 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Xcel Energy Company 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.