Xcel Energy Inc. (XEL): Among the Best Stocks to Buy During Recession
As per BlackRock, 2025 started with a bumpy ride for the US stocks. That being said, the asset manager believes that the sentiment has been a critical driver, but fundamentals seem to be healthy. This makes up for an optimistic longer-run outlook. Despite the tariff shocks creating difficult markets, the firm is constructive in its outlook and opines that volatility is an opportunity to capitalize on stock dispersion. Furthermore, Asia continues to exhibit a diversification opportunity for making investments in the AI theme, with equities providing low correlation to US counterparts.
The trade and tariff uncertainty, which fueled the early-year volatility, advanced at the beginning of Q2 due to the US tariff pronouncements, according to the investment management company. This resulted in a global market meltdown and revived fears related to recession. However, as the quarter progressed, the tariff tensions took a backseat, and there was some optimism visible in the broader US markets. The asset manager believes that, while tariffs remain a critical measure, the potential for market-supporting policies like deregulation and corporate tax cuts provides some room for emergent optimism.
The firm highlighted the importance of an active approach in a bid to capitalize on inefficiencies and to make precise and intentional decisions amidst historic change and transition. While the results of bilateral tariff negotiations remain unpredictable, having a pulse on company dynamics, mainly when the macro picture remains unclear, can act as a differentiator for portfolios.
The firm opines that corporate strength has supported the US equities' momentum, and it comes through in earnings and market share. As per the firm, relatively pro-industry policies have stimulated healthy FCF. Several companies throughout different time frames have deployed the cash for future business growth. Even though the policy uncertainty in the current time of transition led to the pause in large investment decisions, the company believes that moves toward deregulation and the reshoring of supply chains once policy gets settled can result in the revival of CapEx spending throughout industries, such as technology and industrials. Despite tariffs dominating, the asset manager expects that deregulation and other policy priorities can regain attention. The high drive for innovation is the long-term secular trend that can support the US equities.
To list the 15 Best Stocks to Buy During Recession, we considered the stocks from recession-proof industries such as utilities, consumer defensive, and healthcare. After getting an extensive list of 25-30 stocks, we chose the ones popular among hedge funds. Finally, the stocks were arranged in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiments, as of Q4 2024.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
A vast expanse of solar panels stretching as far as the eye can see.Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) is engaged in the generation, purchasing, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity. Ross Fowler, an analyst from Bank of America Securities, maintained a 'Buy' rating on the company's stock, and the associated price target was $77.00. The rating was backed by a combination of factors that demonstrate its growth potential despite some short-term challenges. Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) has reaffirmed its annual EPS and growth guidance, demonstrating confidence in its financial outlook, says the analyst. Furthermore, the company's revenue growth, fueled by favorable rate case outcomes and fuel cost recovery, was mitigated by increased operational costs. However, the company has reaffirmed its 2025 ongoing EPS guidance of $3.75 - $3.85.
Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL) continues to build new generation, invest in system resilience, and has been leading the energy transition. The company reached a milestone in February, when Minnesota regulators approved a resource plan that includes ~5,000 megawatts of new wind, solar, battery storage, and gas by 2030. The company's capital plan can significantly boost its long-term growth prospects. This can support infrastructure improvements, grid modernization, and expansion into new technologies or markets. The investments can enhance Xcel Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XEL)'s operational efficiency, improve service reliability, and potentially result in new revenue streams.
Overall XEL ranks 14th on our list of the best stocks to buy during recession. While we acknowledge the potential of XEL as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some deeply undervalued AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for a deeply undervalued AI stock that is more promising than XEL but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and .
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at .
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 minutes ago
- Yahoo
This Famous Investor Just Bought The Trade Desk After the Stock Plunged. Should Investors Follow Suit?
Key Points The Trade Desk shares sank after the company issued conservative Q3 guidance. This led Cathie Wood to scoop up shares of the beaten-up stock. The stock's valuation has suddenly become a lot more attractive. 10 stocks we like better than The Trade Desk › Shares of The Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD) were absolutely obliterated after the adtech company reported its second-quarter earnings and announced the departure of its CFO. The stock fell nearly 40% the next trading session, although one famous investor used the pullback to buy shares. Cathie Wood of Ark Invest, which runs a number of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) focused on technology and innovation, was out scooping up shares. The Trade Desk is a smaller position in her flagship fund, but it is notable that she was out buying the dip. The question is whether investors should follow suit. Let's take a look at the company's recent earnings report to find out why. Solid quarter but cautious guidance The Trade Desk actually reported a solid quarter that topped analysts' estimates, but conservative guidance sent the stock spiraling lower. For the third quarter, the company forecast that revenue would come in above $717 million, representing 14% growth, while adjusted EBITDA would be approximately $277 million. Those numbers were below analyst expectations, and the revenue growth was a slowdown from what the company reported in Q2. The Trade Desk highlighted the potential negative impact of tariffs and an uncertain macroeconomic environment in the second half, while also noting that there would be less political advertising this year. Excluding the impact of political advertising, revenue growth for Q3 would be around 18%, pretty similar to the 19% revenue growth the company saw in Q2. The Trade Desk noted there was uncertainty among advertisers in some verticals, such as autos and consumer packaged goods, due to tariffs. However, it does see this as an opportunity to continue to accelerate the shift to programmatic advertising, which is more transparent and performance-driven. As such, it expects growth to reaccelerate next year. Many analysts and investors, however, took the company's conservative guidance as a sign that it is losing share to Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and its demand-side platform. Amazon reported strong advertising revenue in its latest earnings release, up 23% and receiving positive commentary. However, The Trade Desk claims it does not directly compete with the company, as Amazon is still mostly focused on serving ads on its own properties and not across the web. The Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green added that Amazon had recently doubled the supply of ad inventory on its Prime Video streaming service. Turning to the results themselves, The Trade Desk grew its Q2 revenue by 19% to $694 million, or up 20% excluding political advertising. Adjusted EPS rose 5% to $0.41. That was ahead of the $685 million in revenue and $0.40 in adjusted EPS expected by analysts, as compiled by LSEG. The Trade Desk is seeing strong adoption of its new Kokai platform, with about 75% of client ad spending now going through Kokai. The artificial intelligence powered platform can process a massive amount of data and give advertisers real-time recommendations for things like budget allocation, targeting, and bidding strategies. It says the customers using Kokai are seeing strong performance improvements in areas such as audience reach and cost per acquisition. Should investors follow Cathie Wood and buy the dip? When a bearish narrative surrounds a stock and a company issues cautious guidance, it often adds weight to that bearish sentiment, whether or not that is the actual reason for the conservative forecast to begin with. That appears to be what happened with The Trade Desk -- it issued somewhat conservative guidance due to the macro environment but investors fed into the "Amazon is starting to disrupt its business" bear thesis. However, excluding political advertising, the company's Q3 forecast actually wasn't much different than its Q2 forecast when it guided for revenue growth of 17%. There is no presidential election this year and far fewer elections in general, so it makes sense that there would be an impact, especially in the fall. And while Amazon's ad commentary may have been more bullish, much of its advertising is sponsored product ads on its own site. Turning to valuation, the pullback sends The Trade Desk shares down to a much more attractive valuation. The stock now trades at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 30 times 2025 analyst estimates and 25 times the 2026 consensus. It also carries a PEG (price/earnings-to-growth) ratio of under 0.5, with PEGs below 1 considered undervalued. Given the opportunities the company still has in areas like connected TV, where advertising is certainly becoming more prevalent, the stock looks like a buy on this dip. Should you buy stock in The Trade Desk right now? Before you buy stock in The Trade Desk, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and The Trade Desk wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $649,544!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,113,059!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,062% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 185% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 13, 2025 Geoffrey Seiler has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon and The Trade Desk. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This Famous Investor Just Bought The Trade Desk After the Stock Plunged. Should Investors Follow Suit? was originally published by The Motley Fool
Business Wire
3 minutes ago
- Business Wire
Upland RightAnswers is Now Available in AWS Marketplace
AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Upland Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: UPLD), a leader in AI-powered knowledge and content management software, has announced that Upland RightAnswers is now available in AWS Marketplace, a digital catalog with thousands of software listings from independent software vendors that make it easy to find, test, buy, and deploy software that runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS). RightAnswers is a KCS v6 Verified knowledge management solution for enterprise contact centers and help desks. The world's top-performing frontline support and knowledge teams trust RightAnswers to reduce escalations, strengthen self-service, and deliver better customer experiences at scale. With RightAnswers, customers achieve impactful business results such as 90% faster 'Mean Time to Know,' 88% increase in 'First Contact Resolution,' 85% faster content creation, and 60% fewer escalations. RightAnswers helps organizations create, enrich, and deliver trusted knowledge anywhere. With 20+ integrations available out-of-the-box across CRM, IT Service Management, chat, and customer-facing channels, RightAnswers surfaces trusted answers from a single source to deliver consistent experiences for customers and internal staff across product portfolios and support tiers. AWS customers will now have access to RightAnswers directly within AWS Marketplace. RightAnswers provides AWS customers with the ability to streamline the purchase and management of RightAnswers within their AWS Marketplace account. 'Knowledge management sits at the heart of RightAnswers and is shaped by almost 25 years of industry expertise. The availability of RightAnswers on AWS Marketplace makes it easier for our customers to build up the trusted knowledge layer their teams rely on every day,' said Dan Doman, Chief Operating and Product Officer at Upland Software. 'We see a future where knowledge flows freely, securely, and intelligently into every system, available for every human or AI agent. To get there, organizations need a portable knowledge layer that is trusted and ready to power experiences across tools and channels. We're committed to building AI features that deliver real results and knowledge solutions that are impactful, purpose-built, and accessible.' RightAnswers is now generally available in AWS Marketplace. For more information on RightAnswers and knowledge management, please visit About Upland Software Upland Software (Nasdaq: UPLD) is a leader in AI-powered knowledge and content management software. Our solutions help enterprises unlock critical knowledge, automate content workflows, and drive measurable ROI—enhancing customer and employee experiences while supporting regulatory compliance. More than 1,100 enterprise customers rely on Upland to solve complex challenges and provide a trusted path for AI adoption. For more information, visit KCS® is a service mark of the Consortium for Service Innovation™.
CNBC
5 minutes ago
- CNBC
This Latin American payments stock is 'turning the corner' and could rally 28%, HSBC says
Latin American online payments provider dLocal is finally on a path towards long-term growth, according to HSBC. Analyst Neha Agarwala upgraded shares to buy from hold and lifted her price target by $3.50 to $15, suggesting the stock can gain more than 28% over the next year. DLocal, up 51% in the last year and another 20% in early trading Thursday after posting second-quarter results Wednesday, has been widening its global expansion. In January, for example, the Uruguayan company secured a U.K. payment institution license . HSBC sees it benefiting from a lower cost of equity and more operating leverage in 2026. "We upgrade our rating on the stock from Hold to Buy in view of the significant long-term growth potential for the company along with tangible momentum witnessed in the past few quarters; [DLocal] we believe is on the right path to gradually regain market confidence," Agarwala said in a note to clients, adding that the company is "showing clear signs of turning the corner." DLO 1Y mountain dLocal stock performance over the past year. Agarwala's bullish thesis comes from DLocal's low earnings volatility and improving disclosures over the past year. The company's significant earnings beat and continued strong volumes also improved sentiment. "Beyond this consistent performance, which we believe is key for regaining market confidence, what excited us is better than expected cost control despite continued investments in personnel and technology, introduction of new innovative products which will likely not bring material revenues in the near term but enhances its offering versus competition in an industry which is fairly commoditized, and capital optimization," Agarwala wrote in the note. DLocal went public on the Nasdaq in 2021 and garnered a $9 billion valuation at the time, but has since declined in value. The company now has a roughly $3.3 billion market capitalization.
