Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. Decreases Stock Position in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. decreased its position in shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) by 48.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,178 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,797 shares during the period. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.’s holdings in Xcel Energy were worth $278,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Xcel Energy in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Xcel Energy during the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Xcel Energy in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Heritage Wealth Advisors bought a new stake in Xcel Energy during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Finally, Capital Analysts LLC raised its holdings in shares of Xcel Energy by 293.6% during the fourth quarter. Capital Analysts LLC now owns 433 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 323 shares during the period. 78.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

XEL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Xcel Energy from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Xcel Energy from $68.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Xcel Energy from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. TheStreet downgraded Xcel Energy from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Xcel Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Xcel Energy currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $62.00.

Xcel Energy Price Performance

Shares of Xcel Energy stock traded up $0.64 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $53.07. The stock had a trading volume of 637,480 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,742,025. The business has a fifty day moving average of $54.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $56.24. Xcel Energy Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $46.79 and a fifty-two week high of $65.62. The firm has a market cap of $29.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.96, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $0.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.08. Xcel Energy had a net margin of 13.36% and a return on equity of 11.03%. The company had revenue of $3.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.12 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.76 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Xcel Energy Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, July 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.5475 per share. This represents a $2.19 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.13%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 65.77%.

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.