RIA Advisory Group LLC Makes New $301,000 Investment in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

RIA Advisory Group LLC purchased a new position in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 4,864 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $301,000.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of XEL. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 0.8% in the first quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 19,660 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,418,000 after buying an additional 156 shares in the last quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC lifted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC now owns 26,007 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,610,000 after buying an additional 169 shares in the last quarter. Stephens Inc. AR lifted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 5.6% in the second quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 3,281 shares of the company’s stock valued at $204,000 after buying an additional 174 shares in the last quarter. Nwam LLC lifted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 5.8% in the first quarter. Nwam LLC now owns 3,224 shares of the company’s stock valued at $217,000 after buying an additional 177 shares in the last quarter. Finally, IFP Advisors Inc lifted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 1.6% in the second quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 11,461 shares of the company’s stock valued at $713,000 after buying an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. 78.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

XEL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on shares of Xcel Energy from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com raised shares of Xcel Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Xcel Energy from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 11th. Barclays raised shares of Xcel Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $61.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Monday, March 11th. Finally, TheStreet lowered shares of Xcel Energy from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $62.83.

Xcel Energy Stock Performance

Shares of XEL traded up $0.96 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $54.72. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,476,673 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,430,368. The company has a market cap of $30.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.75, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.36. 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 business has a 50 day simple moving average of $54.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $58.14. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 52-week low of $46.79 and a 52-week high of $71.32.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last posted 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 for the quarter was down 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.69 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, April 20th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.548 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $2.19 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.01%. This is a boost from Xcel Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Xcel Energy’s payout ratio is currently 68.22%.

About Xcel Energy

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.