NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) Receives $86.38 Average Price Target from Analysts

NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) has received an average rating of “Hold” from the fifteen research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $86.54.

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on NEE shares. Barclays upped their target price on NextEra Energy from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on NextEra Energy from $83.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Guggenheim upped their target price on NextEra Energy from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on NextEra Energy from $87.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered NextEra Energy from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in NextEra Energy by 0.7% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 21,298,642 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,508,155,000 after purchasing an additional 143,748 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in NextEra Energy by 9.2% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 8,178,185 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $579,097,000 after purchasing an additional 691,341 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in NextEra Energy by 22.3% in the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 6,961,556 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $443,834,000 after purchasing an additional 1,268,900 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates raised its position in NextEra Energy by 14.3% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 6,809,093 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $575,573,000 after purchasing an additional 851,873 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in NextEra Energy by 7.2% in the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 6,100,348 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $431,966,000 after purchasing an additional 409,708 shares during the period. 78.72% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NextEra Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NEE stock opened at $79.25 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $162.97 billion, a PE ratio of 23.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.56. NextEra Energy has a 52-week low of $53.81 and a 52-week high of $86.10. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $82.43 and its 200 day moving average price is $76.57. The company has a quick ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The utilities provider reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.05. NextEra Energy had a return on equity of 11.75% and a net margin of 24.45%. The company had revenue of $7.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.11 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.94 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that NextEra Energy will post 3.4 EPS for the current year.

NextEra Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a $0.515 dividend. This represents a $2.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.60%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 60.95%.

About NextEra Energy

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.