Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC Buys 26,549 Shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. $NEE

Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 19.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 160,804 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 26,549 shares during the quarter. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $12,139,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of NEE. Tripletail Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in NextEra Energy in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Activest Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 79.7% during the 2nd quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 354 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 157 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Asset Planning Inc. bought a new stake in shares of NextEra Energy in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC purchased a new position in NextEra Energy in the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Finally, Quaker Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in NextEra Energy by 200.0% in the second quarter. Quaker Wealth Management LLC now owns 386 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 772 shares during 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 subject of a number of recent research reports. HSBC raised their target price on NextEra Energy from $94.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on NextEra Energy from $98.00 to $97.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on NextEra Energy from $78.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. UBS Group set a $91.00 target price on shares of NextEra Energy and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of NextEra Energy from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NextEra Energy has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $91.72.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Armando Pimentel, Jr. sold 145,140 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.91, for a total value of $12,178,697.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 162,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,651,569.63. This represents a 47.15% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

NextEra Energy Trading Down 3.2%

NextEra Energy stock opened at $78.43 on Thursday. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $61.72 and a fifty-two week high of $87.53. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $82.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $77.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.55. The stock has a market cap of $163.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.98, a PEG ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.74.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.04 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $7.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.13 billion. NextEra Energy had a return on equity of 12.42% and a net margin of 24.72%.The company’s revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.03 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NextEra Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 21st were given a dividend of $0.5665 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 21st. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. NextEra Energy’s payout ratio is presently 71.97%.

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.