Key Insights

• Significantly high institutional ownership implies Xcel Energy's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions

• 50% of the business is held by the top 19 shareholders

• Insiders have sold recently

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 79% to be precise, is institutions. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Given the vast amount of money and research capacities at their disposal, institutional ownership tends to carry a lot of weight, especially with individual investors. As a result, a sizeable amount of institutional money invested in a firm is generally viewed as a positive attribute.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Xcel Energy.

See our latest analysis for Xcel Energy

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Xcel Energy?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

We can see that Xcel Energy does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Xcel Energy's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. Hedge funds don't have many shares in Xcel Energy. The company's largest shareholder is The Vanguard Group, Inc., with ownership of 13%. BlackRock, Inc. is the second largest shareholder owning 8.2% of common stock, and State Street Global Advisors, Inc. holds about 6.2% of the company stock.

A closer look at our ownership figures suggests that the top 19 shareholders have a combined ownership of 50% implying that no single shareholder has a majority.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.