Consolidated Portfolio Review Corp Boosts Stake in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Consolidated Portfolio Review Corp boosted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 2.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 11,949 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 266 shares during the period. Consolidated Portfolio Review Corp’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $726,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

NEE has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Guggenheim raised their price objective on shares of NextEra Energy from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of NextEra Energy in a report on Wednesday. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $66.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of NextEra Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, February 19th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $74.00 price target on shares of NextEra Energy in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of NextEra Energy from $76.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $72.00.

NextEra Energy Stock Performance

NextEra Energy stock traded down $0.86 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $63.08. 9,039,494 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,494,934. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $47.15 and a 12-month high of $79.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.55. The stock has a market cap of $129.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.51. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $59.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.29.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.03. NextEra Energy had a net margin of 26.00% and a return on equity of 11.73%. The company had revenue of $6.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.72 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.51 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.4 EPS for the current year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 27th were given a dividend of $0.515 per share. This is an increase from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.47. This represents a $2.06 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 26th. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.