Wellington Shields & Co. LLC Reduces Stake in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Wellington Shields & Co. LLC reduced its position in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 13,214 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 200 shares during the period. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $947,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of NEE. Amundi increased its position in NextEra Energy by 49.8% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 9,543,552 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $676,008,000 after buying an additional 3,172,405 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in NextEra Energy by 20.9% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,833,725 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $634,703,000 after buying an additional 1,525,436 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in NextEra Energy by 167.7% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 2,186,225 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $184,795,000 after buying an additional 1,369,689 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its position in NextEra Energy by 13,375.2% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 946,231 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $67,835,000 after buying an additional 939,209 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new position in NextEra Energy during the fourth quarter worth $65,657,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at NextEra Energy

In other news, CAO James Michael May sold 2,383 shares of NextEra Energy stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.09, for a total transaction of $162,258.47. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,427 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,867,504.43. The trade was a 7.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on NextEra Energy from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on NextEra Energy from $82.00 to $84.00 in a report on Monday, January 27th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on NextEra Energy from $92.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on NextEra Energy from $81.00 to $77.00 in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on NextEra Energy from $84.00 to $79.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $85.92.

NextEra Energy Trading Up 1.2 %

NYSE:NEE opened at $73.59 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $70.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $75.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 0.47 and a quick ratio of 0.38. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $58.88 and a 12 month high of $86.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $151.37 billion, a PE ratio of 21.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.58.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.53. NextEra Energy had a return on equity of 11.85% and a net margin of 28.06%. Research analysts predict that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a $0.5665 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This is a positive change from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.08%. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 67.06%.

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.