Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC Acquires 9,026 Shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 25.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 44,715 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,026 shares during the quarter. Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $2,716,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NEE. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NextEra Energy during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $141,817,000. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 59.1% in the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 5,784,080 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $337,096,000 after acquiring an additional 2,148,205 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 7,999.6% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,173,459 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $132,016,000 after purchasing an additional 2,146,625 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in NextEra Energy by 1.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 198,430,172 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,368,065,000 after purchasing an additional 1,956,153 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc bought a new stake in shares of NextEra Energy in the 4th quarter valued at about $94,883,000. Institutional investors own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on NEE. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $74.00 price objective on shares of NextEra Energy in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of NextEra Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. Guggenheim lifted their price target on NextEra Energy from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on NextEra Energy from $77.00 to $79.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Barclays assumed coverage on shares of NextEra Energy in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $66.00 price objective on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, NextEra Energy has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $71.50.

NextEra Energy Stock Performance

NYSE NEE traded down $0.60 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $68.01. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,454,048 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,771,813. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $47.15 and a 12 month high of $78.53. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.49 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The company has a market cap of $139.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.50.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.11. NextEra Energy had a net margin of 27.62% and a return on equity of 11.72%. The firm had revenue of $5.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.84 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 14.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The company 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 3.03%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 26th. This is a boost from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.47. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 56.13%.

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.