Barclays Issues Positive Forecast for NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) Stock Price

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) had its target price lifted by Barclays from $85.00 to $89.00 in a research report report published on Tuesday,MarketScreener reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on NEE. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and set a $103.00 target price on shares of NextEra Energy in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of NextEra Energy from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. BMO Capital Markets set a $95.00 target price on shares of NextEra Energy in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of NextEra Energy from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Argus set a $92.00 price target on shares of NextEra Energy and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $94.94.

NextEra Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:NEE opened at $93.50 on Tuesday. 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 firm has a fifty day moving average price of $91.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $85.45. NextEra Energy has a fifty-two week low of $61.72 and a fifty-two week high of $95.91. The firm has a market cap of $194.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.42 and a beta of 0.74.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.01. NextEra Energy had a net margin of 24.93% and a return on equity of 12.18%. The firm had revenue of $6.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.07 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.53 earnings per share. NextEra Energy’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that NextEra Energy will post 3.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Friday, February 27th were paid a dividend of $0.6232 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 27th. This is a positive change from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.49 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.7%. NextEra Energy’s payout ratio is currently 75.68%.

Insider Activity at NextEra Energy

In other news, EVP Terrell Kirk Crews II sold 19,672 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 9th. The shares were 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. This represents a 21.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Treasurer James Michael May sold 7,161 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 9th. The shares were 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 approximately $2,411,924.13. This represents a 21.14% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 190,816 shares of company stock valued at $17,075,619 over the last quarter. 0.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NextEra Energy

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Purpose Unlimited Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of NextEra Energy in the fourth quarter valued at $253,000. Cornerstone Planning LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NextEra Energy in the fourth quarter valued at $941,000. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 33.5% in the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 2,167,141 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $173,978,000 after acquiring an additional 543,511 shares during the period. Osbon Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NextEra Energy in the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Finally, World Investment Advisors raised its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 97,788 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,850,000 after acquiring an additional 1,841 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

NextEra Energy Company 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.