NEW YORK (TheStreet) --Shares of Xcel Energy Inc. (XEL) - Get Report are higher by 0.77% to $35.27 in pre-market trading on Tuesday morning, after analysts at Barclays upgraded their rating on the stock to "overweight" from "equal weight."

The firm said it upped its rating on the public utility holding company based on its expectation of a positive outcome with the Minnesota rate case.

Xcel has requested price changes for a two year period in order to make investments that allow continued operation and increased output at Xcel Energy's nuclear plants for an additional 20 years, and new wind resources, the company said in a statement on its website. 

"Resolution of this rate case should remove a long-standing overhang from the stock and largely clear the regulatory calendar for XEL," Barclays said in an analyst note.

"We anticipate a reasonable final order from the Minnesota Public Utility Commission (MPUC). Historically, MPUC final decisions have been roughly in-line with the ALJ recommendations. In this case, the ALJ recommendation calls for a $73.6MM rate increase in 2014 and an incremental step increase of $122.4MM in 2015, based on a 9.77% allowed ROE and 52.5% equity ratio," the firm continued.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates XCEL ENERGY INC as a Buy with a ratings score of A-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate XCEL ENERGY INC (XEL) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, growth in earnings per share, increase in net income, revenue growth and good cash flow from operations. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally high debt management risk by most measures that we evaluated."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• Compared to where it was a year ago today, the stock is now trading at a higher level, reflecting both the market's overall trend during that period and the fact that the company's earnings growth has been robust. Turning our attention to the future direction of the stock, it goes without saying that even the best stocks can fall in an overall down market. However, in any other environment, this stock still has good upside potential despite the fact that it has already risen in the past year.
• XCEL ENERGY INC has improved earnings per share by 30.0% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, XCEL ENERGY INC increased its bottom line by earning $2.03 versus $1.91 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($2.10 versus $2.03).
• The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has exceeded that of the S&P 500 and the Electric Utilities industry average. The net income increased by 30.8% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, rising from $150.06 million to $196.34 million.
• Despite its growing revenue, the company underperformed as compared with the industry average of 10.6%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 7.2%. This growth in revenue appears to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, improving the earnings per share.
• Net operating cash flow has increased to $643.85 million or 10.79% when compared to the same quarter last year. The firm also exceeded the industry average cash flow growth rate of -14.59%.
• You can view the full analysis from the report here: XEL Ratings Report