OFI Invest Asset Management Increases Holdings in NextEra Energy, Inc. $NEE

OFI Invest Asset Management lifted its position in shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 25.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 903,625 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 185,188 shares during the quarter. NextEra Energy accounts for about 0.9% of OFI Invest Asset Management’s holdings, making the stock its 23rd biggest position. OFI Invest Asset Management’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $72,543,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in NextEra Energy by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 213,799,521 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,139,726,000 after buying an additional 922,500 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in NextEra Energy by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 16,787,191 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,267,265,000 after buying an additional 373,088 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its stake in NextEra Energy by 16.7% in the 3rd quarter. Amundi now owns 12,461,783 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,012,129,000 after buying an additional 1,780,881 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its stake in NextEra Energy by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 7,585,666 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $572,642,000 after buying an additional 141,081 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its stake in NextEra Energy by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 4,953,009 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $373,903,000 after buying an additional 89,586 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NEE has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Erste Group Bank raised NextEra Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $106.00 price target on shares of NextEra Energy in a report on Friday, February 20th. Mizuho set a $90.00 price target on NextEra Energy and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Wall Street Zen downgraded NextEra Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, March 28th. Finally, HSBC boosted their price target on NextEra Energy from $96.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, NextEra Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $94.94.

NextEra Energy Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of NEE opened at $94.22 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $91.75 and a two-hundred day moving average of $85.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a current ratio of 0.60. The company has a market capitalization of $196.32 billion, a PE ratio of 28.64 and a beta of 0.74. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $61.72 and a fifty-two week high of $95.91.

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

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 27th were issued a dividend of $0.6232 per share. This represents a $2.49 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 27th. This is a positive change from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. NextEra Energy’s payout ratio is currently 75.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NextEra Energy

In other news, Treasurer James Michael May sold 7,161 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.27, for a total transaction of $646,423.47. Following the completion of the sale, the treasurer directly owned 26,719 shares in the company, valued at $2,411,924.13. This represents a 21.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Terrell Kirk Crews II sold 19,672 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.27, for a total value of $1,775,791.44. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 73,857 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,667,071.39. The trade was a 21.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 190,816 shares of company stock worth $17,075,619. 0.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

NextEra Energy Profile

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.