Analysts Set NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) PT at $72.46

NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the thirteen research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $72.00.

NEE has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of NextEra Energy from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $74.00 target price on shares of NextEra Energy in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. StockNews.com lowered shares of NextEra Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, February 19th. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of NextEra Energy in a research note on Wednesday. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $66.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of NextEra Energy from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th.

NextEra Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NEE opened at $63.07 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $59.19 and a 200-day moving average of $58.34. NextEra Energy has a one year low of $47.15 and a one year high of $79.78. The company has a market cap of $129.45 billion, a PE ratio of 17.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 0.55 and a quick ratio of 0.47.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $6.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.72 billion. NextEra Energy had a net margin of 26.00% and a return on equity of 11.73%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.51 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that NextEra Energy will post 3.44 earnings per share for the current year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 27th were given a dividend of $0.515 per share. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.27%. 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 (DPR) is 57.06%.

Institutional Trading of NextEra Energy

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in NextEra Energy by 1.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 198,430,172 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $11,368,065,000 after purchasing an additional 1,956,153 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of NextEra Energy during the 4th quarter valued at $2,561,055,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in NextEra Energy by 66,613.3% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 30,263,816 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,530,055,000 after buying an additional 30,218,452 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in NextEra Energy by 2.0% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 22,982,250 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,316,653,000 after acquiring an additional 455,271 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 37.7% during the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 21,049,622 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,278,553,000 after purchasing an additional 5,764,842 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

NextEra Energy Company Profile

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.