Vanguard Group Inc. Increases Holdings in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 1.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 205,297,225 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,090,538 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 0.10% of NextEra Energy worth $14,717,758,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 14.7% in the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 45,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,267,000 after buying an additional 5,831 shares in the last quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC grew its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,823,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $130,714,000 after buying an additional 41,328 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 20.9% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,833,725 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $634,703,000 after buying an additional 1,525,436 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank grew its stake in NextEra Energy by 6.5% during the 4th quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 445,870 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,964,000 after purchasing an additional 27,340 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ST Germain D J Co. Inc. grew its stake in NextEra Energy by 5.8% during the 4th quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 171,735 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,312,000 after purchasing an additional 9,425 shares in the last quarter. 78.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NEE has been the subject of several analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on NextEra Energy from $82.00 to $84.00 in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on NextEra Energy from $84.00 to $79.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on NextEra Energy from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $89.00 price objective on shares of NextEra Energy in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on NextEra Energy from $95.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $85.92.

NextEra Energy Stock Down 0.3 %

NextEra Energy stock opened at $70.92 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $70.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of $75.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.47. The company has a market capitalization of $145.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.04, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.58. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $61.30 and a fifty-two week high of $86.10.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last posted 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%. Equities research analysts expect that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.68 earnings per share for the current year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were given a dividend of $0.5665 per share. This is a boost from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.20%. NextEra Energy’s payout ratio is presently 67.06%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO James Michael May sold 2,383 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.09, for a total value of $162,258.47. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,427 shares in the company, valued at $1,867,504.43. This represents a 7.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.