Ninety One SA PTY Ltd Buys 8,449 Shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Ninety One SA PTY Ltd lifted its stake in shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 8.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 113,483 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,449 shares during the quarter. Ninety One SA PTY Ltd’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $6,893,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in NEE. United Bank grew its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 9.8% during the 1st quarter. United Bank now owns 9,966 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $844,000 after acquiring an additional 891 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management boosted its stake in NextEra Energy by 9.2% in the 1st quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 32,180 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,726,000 after purchasing an additional 2,700 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its stake in NextEra Energy by 11.2% in the 1st quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 15,731 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,333,000 after purchasing an additional 1,587 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd boosted its stake in NextEra Energy by 59.1% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 878 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $74,000 after purchasing an additional 326 shares during the period. Finally, Ergoteles LLC bought a new position in NextEra Energy in the 1st quarter worth approximately $793,000. 78.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NEE has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on NextEra Energy from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Barclays initiated coverage on NextEra Energy in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $66.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com downgraded NextEra Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, February 19th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on NextEra Energy from $77.00 to $68.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Guggenheim upped their price objective on NextEra Energy from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $71.36.

NextEra Energy Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE:NEE traded up $0.35 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $64.14. 6,470,576 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,798,856. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $59.58 and its 200-day moving average is $58.39. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $47.15 and a 12-month high of $79.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $131.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.03. NextEra Energy had a return on equity of 11.73% and a net margin of 26.00%. The company had revenue of $6.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.72 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.51 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.4 EPS for the current year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 27th were issued a dividend of $0.515 per share. This represents a $2.06 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.21%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 26th. This is a positive change from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.47. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 57.06%.

About NextEra Energy

NextEra Energy, Inc, through its subsidiaries, generates, transmits, distributes, and sells electric power to retail and wholesale customers in North America. The company generates electricity through wind, solar, nuclear,natural gas, and other clean energy. It also develops, constructs, and operates long-term contracted assets that consists of clean energy solutions, such as renewable generation facilities, battery storage projects, and electric transmission facilities; sells energy commodities; and owns, develops, constructs, manages and operates electric generation facilities in wholesale energy markets.