FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH Makes New $827,000 Investment in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)

FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH purchased a new position in Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 15,382 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $827,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of XEL. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 8,644,054 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 7.9% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 19,994,298 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,237,847,000 after buying an additional 1,472,435 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 184.9% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,451,483 shares of the company’s stock valued at $89,861,000 after buying an additional 942,097 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 247.8% during the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,284,305 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,511,000 after buying an additional 915,046 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in shares of Xcel Energy by 155.3% during the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 1,140,853 shares of the company’s stock valued at $70,630,000 after buying an additional 693,921 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America upped their price target on Xcel Energy from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Wolfe Research raised Xcel Energy from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 11th. TheStreet lowered Xcel Energy from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on Xcel Energy from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Xcel Energy from $68.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Xcel Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $62.00.

Xcel Energy Trading Up 1.2 %

XEL traded up $0.63 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $53.06. The company had a trading volume of 415,791 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,740,266. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $54.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.24. The company has a market cap of $29.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.96, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.37. Xcel Energy Inc. has a 12-month low of $46.79 and a 12-month high of $65.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.86.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) last released its earnings results 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 return on equity of 11.03% and a net margin of 13.36%. The company had revenue of $3.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.12 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.76 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Xcel Energy Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Xcel Energy Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.19 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.13%. Xcel Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 65.77%.

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.