Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas Has $2.29 Million Position in NextEra Energy, Inc. $NEE

Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas lessened its position in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 53.6% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 30,290 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 34,961 shares during the period. Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas’ holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $2,287,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of NextEra Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,375,545,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in NextEra Energy by 2.7% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 212,877,021 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $14,777,923,000 after acquiring an additional 5,554,603 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in NextEra Energy by 1,765.3% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 3,968,305 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $299,567,000 after acquiring an additional 3,755,563 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group increased its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 18.7% in the second quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 10,796,329 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $749,481,000 after acquiring an additional 1,701,648 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. raised its position in shares of NextEra Energy by 181.9% during the second quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 2,185,513 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $151,718,000 after purchasing an additional 1,410,200 shares during the period. 78.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on NEE shares. Barclays lifted their price objective on NextEra Energy from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 15th. BMO Capital Markets set a $95.00 target price on shares of NextEra Energy in a report on Thursday, January 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of NextEra Energy from $94.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $87.00 price objective on shares of NextEra Energy in a research report on Wednesday, January 14th. Finally, Argus set a $92.00 price objective on shares of NextEra Energy and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $93.47.

NextEra Energy Trading Down 0.2%

NYSE:NEE opened at $92.50 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $192.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.12 and a beta of 0.76. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $61.72 and a twelve month high of $95.91. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $86.59 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $82.04. The company has a quick ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $6.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.07 billion. NextEra Energy had a net margin of 24.93% and a return on equity of 12.18%. The firm’s revenue was up 20.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.53 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 27th will be given a dividend of $0.6232 per share. This is a boost from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 27th. This represents a $2.49 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. NextEra Energy’s payout ratio is presently 75.68%.

Insider Transactions at NextEra Energy

In related news, CEO John W. Ketchum sold 99,603 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.34, for a total transaction of $8,898,532.02. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 305,933 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,332,054.22. This represents a 24.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Ronald R. Reagan sold 18,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total value of $1,675,800.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 9,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $867,870. This trade represents a 65.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 159,049 shares of company stock worth $14,194,542 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

About NextEra Energy

NextEra Energy, Inc (NYSE: NEE), headquartered in Juno Beach, Florida, is a leading clean energy company with both regulated utility operations and competitive renewable generation businesses. The company’s principal operating subsidiaries include Florida Power & Light Company (FPL), a regulated electric utility serving customers in Florida, and NextEra Energy Resources, which develops, constructs, owns and operates a large portfolio of wind, solar and energy storage projects. Together these businesses provide electricity supply, transmission and distribution services as well as utility-scale renewable generation and related services.

NextEra’s activities cover the full lifecycle of power assets, from project development and construction to operation, maintenance and asset optimization.