Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group Purchases 11,558 Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group boosted its position in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 110.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 21,986 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 11,558 shares during the quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $1,361,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in Xcel Energy by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 298,074 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,448,000 after buying an additional 7,679 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 47.7% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 115,016 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,121,000 after acquiring an additional 37,131 shares during the period. Seven Eight Capital LP boosted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 930.5% during the 3rd quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP now owns 45,918 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,627,000 after acquiring an additional 41,462 shares during the period. First Bank & Trust boosted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 66.8% during the 4th quarter. First Bank & Trust now owns 70,404 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,359,000 after acquiring an additional 28,187 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Xcel Energy by 15.6% in 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 period. Institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

XEL has been the subject of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Xcel Energy from $67.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on Xcel Energy from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Barclays raised Xcel Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $61.00 to $54.00 in a report on Monday, March 11th. StockNews.com raised Xcel Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Xcel Energy from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $63.08.

Xcel Energy Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of Xcel Energy stock traded up $0.40 on Thursday, hitting $53.59. 1,576,315 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,422,467. Xcel Energy Inc. has a one year low of $46.79 and a one year 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 company has a fifty day moving average of $54.32 and a two-hundred day moving average of $58.17. The company has a market capitalization of $29.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.36.

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

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, April 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be issued a $0.548 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $2.19 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.09%. This is a positive change from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.22%.

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.