Energy Sector Coverage
Scotiabank Initiates Coverage of Multiple Energy and Utility Stocks With Mixed Ratings
Anonymous
Scotiabank initiated coverage of multiple energy and utility companies on September 29, 2026. It assigned Sector Outperform ratings to Xcel Energy preferred stock, PPL debt and UGI, and a Sector Perform rating to Liberty Energy; consensus targets implied potential gains of about 19% to 56% for three companies with target data. The stocks and securities had generally weakened over the preceding month, analyst sentiment was mostly positive for Xcel, PPL and UGI and more mixed for Liberty, and recent results varied: Liberty beat quarterly revenue and earnings estimates while UGI missed both. Scotiabank also rated Southwest Gas Holdings, PPL, ONE Gas and Pinnacle West Capital Sector Outperform, with stated price targets of $95 for Southwest Gas, $36 for PPL and $86 for ONE Gas; NiSource received a Sector Perform rating and a $43 target. The available reports do not specify a target for Pinnacle West, and the coverage details for the latter four companies are limited.
Key Points
1
Xcel Energy serves customers across eight states—Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Texas and New Mexico—and has committed to net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050.
2
For Liberty Energy, Barclays upgraded its rating from Equal-Weight to Overweight on September 28, one day before Scotiabank initiated coverage. Liberty’s latest reported quarter also showed EPS of $0.30 against an estimate of $0.0395, a 659.49% positive surprise; its next results were scheduled for October 21.
3
UGI’s August 2026 quarterly results missed both estimates: it reported EPS of -$0.20 versus an estimated -$0.1091, and revenue of $1.331 billion versus an estimated $1.552 billion. Jefferies had upgraded the company from Hold to Buy on September 9.
4
PPL has a substantial presence in the U.K. energy market through subsidiary operations. Recent analyst actions included Morgan Stanley maintaining Overweight on September 18 and RBC Capital initiating coverage at Sector Perform on September 15.
Sentiment
Mostly PositiveNEGATIVENEUTRALPOSITIVE
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